Is There No Escape From War?
by DameonStarflame
Summary: Two years have passed since the A.C. pilots returned from the C.E. universe. After enjoying a year of peace, trouble is stirring once again. However, this time Relena and the pilots may be in over their heads... Part 2 of 3.
1. One Year Later

Gundam Wing:

Is There No Escape from War?

Chapter 1: One Year Later

_After Colony 203: After the dust had settled on their return, the pilots enjoyed a year of peace. Fear of the pilots' mysterious return quickly silenced any considerations terrorist organizations had about taking control of the ESUN. The Gundams were kept in an underground facility built beneath the ruins of the former Sanc Kingdom castle at the request of the other ESUN politicians, to keep the pilots from using them for 'reckless purposes', despite insistence from the pilots they would do nothing with the Gundams aside from their assigned purposes. Relena dismissed the old ambassadors after it was discovered they had planned to have her assassinated. How they discovered the assassination plot was never revealed, but rumours claimed that it was an inside tip from an unnamed assassin-for-hire that prevented it. Working on getting acquainted with the ambassadors that had replaced them meant that travelling to the colonies was almost impossible. With their normal lives to keep them busy, and Relena barely needing their services, the pilots rarely saw each other. However, that was quickly about to change as rumours of a threat to the ESUN and Relena began to slowly make their way around thanks to the people of the Earth Sphere…_

* * *

Quatre sighed as he sat at his home desk, which was just as bogged down with papers and files as his office desk was.

"I must admit, this was one thing I didn't miss in that other universe…" He muttered to himself as he finished signing an acquisition form for supplies for an upcoming project.

Rashid chuckled in amusement as he stood, unnoticed by Quatre, in front of a bookshelf.

Quatre jumped in surprise, grabbing onto the desk to prevent himself from slipping off the chair. "I'm sorry; I didn't know you were there, Rashid."

Rashid made a dismissive gesture as he passed Quatre some more papers. "These are courtesy of an old friend." He explained when Quatre looked at him questioningly. "He's downstairs organizing the shipment right now."

Quatre smiled as he quickly signed all the papers that Rashid had handed him. "It's been a while. I specifically ordered from them hoping he'd personally make the delivery."

Rashid chuckled as Quatre rushed from the office and snuck quietly down the mansion's main staircase.

A man with a long braid wearing a long trench coat stood staring at a painting in the entrance hall with his arms resting loosely on his head.

Quatre slapped the papers into his hands with a grin.

Duo glanced back at him wearing a similar grin. "I had a feeling you'd rush these." He said as he waved the papers.

"It's been almost five months since our last mission, I was eager to see a friendly face again."

Duo nodded in agreement. "Hey Rashid, I'm sorry to ask you this, but could you take these out to Joey? He's the one in charge of the shipment; I just hitched a ride with them once I learned where it was going."

Rashid chuckled as he took the papers from Duo. "Of course… I'll go check to see if the other one has arrived." He said, nodding to the two younger men before exiting the mansion.

"Hey, what does Rashid mean by the other one?" Duo questioned as he followed Quatre into a living room.

Quatre smiled mysteriously and refused to answer his question, even as Duo began pestering him for information. Quatre finally managed to silence Duo by offering him a drink.

* * *

Rashid sighed as he entered the living room where Duo and Quatre were reminiscing about their time in the C.E. universe.

"Is he here?" Quatre questioned.

Rashid nodded. "I ran into him when I was giving those papers to that Sweeper guy. By the way, he says thanks for delegating all of your work onto him, jackass."

Duo shrugged casually in response as Trowa walked up behind Rashid, patting the older man on the shoulder in thanks before going over to greet Duo and Quatre.

He threw a leather coat with fur lining over his shoulder as he looked down at the other two men. "So you're still causing trouble for the Sweepers?" He asked Duo, who shrugged again in response, this time with an amused grin.

"I'm glad you could make it Trowa." Quatre said as he shook Trowa's hand.

"I must admit that your timing was perfect. The circus is on hold because one of the elephants is too far along in her pregnancy to safely travel. So we all have some free time until she's given birth."

"Hah. Knowing you, you'd find some excuse to come for a visit anyways." Duo said dismissively as Trowa shook his hand.

Trowa chuckled. "That's probably true." He admitted as he took the drink that Quatre was silently offering him with a grateful nod.

"I'll leave you three alone. I've gotta go and make sure this shipment makes it to the right project." Rashid said.

Quatre nodded. "Just be on the lookout for Yaturi's men, he's made some veiled threats recently and I'm concerned he's planning to finally come after us."

Rashid nodded in grim understanding before leaving.

"Who's Yaturi?" Duo questioned as both men looked at Quatre curiously.

"He's a jackass." Quatre said absently, causing his friends to stare at him in shock before he blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry about that…" He said weakly.

"Man, it takes a lot to piss you off… what has this Yaturi guy done to you?" Duo asked as Quatre sat down with a sigh.

"Heiran Yaturi is a devious man. I've rarely met him in person, but I've had some dealings with his company. They're the second largest corporation in the colonies, and we've been forced to deal with them a few times as the Winner Corporation has begun expanding into other fields of business. They've brought down a lot of smaller businesses by using some very underhanded schemes, but they've rarely come after the Winner Corporation because of our size and standing in the Earth Sphere, although I have a feeling my status as a pilot may help us too."

"I'm guessing he's really good at covering his tracks?" Trowa asked grimly, knowing that would be the only way they would get away with anything underhanded without the ESUN cracking down on him.

Quatre simply nodded before sighing. "Come on; let's go out to the garden. I've got some bad things to tell you and I'd prefer to say them in a nice setting…" He said grimly as he led his friends out of the living room, grabbing his winter coat as they went.

* * *

Duo and Trowa sat in the centre of the garden; staring around at how beautiful it was with the snow and ice glistening off of the trees and ground plants around them as Quatre stood nervously nearby.

He didn't really want to tell them what he needed to tell them.

"It's a bit chilly out here, so what are these bad things you have to tell us?" Duo asked finally.

Trowa sighed. "It wouldn't have anything to do with the rumours I've heard, would it?"

"So you've heard them too?" Quatre asked worriedly.

Trowa nodded. "That's initially why I chose the circus. You get to hear a lot of rumours from the patrons."

"I guess I'm the only one in the dark, then." Duo said with grim amusement.

Quatre glanced at him in surprise. "I'm amazed the Sweepers haven't kept you informed."

Duo made a dismissive gesture. "They rarely pay attention to anything except their jobs, even if Howard's tried to get them to keep their ears open for bad signs. So what are these rumours you two have been hearing?"

Trowa and Quatre glanced at each other worriedly before Trowa motioned for Quatre to explain.

Quatre sighed in defeat, knowing that Trowa would rather leave it to him. "There have been some rumours going around that could be considered a threat to the ESUN. I've already sent in a warning to Milliardo about them, and I know he's taking the rumours seriously…"

Trowa smirked. "I'm not surprised we both decided to let them know about the rumours. Hopefully that will make them realize how serious the situation is, since two pilots sent in a warning…"

Duo tensed as Quatre launched into an explanation of the rumours.

Trowa only partially listened since he already knew the rumours, which went like this: the ESUN's top officials were going to be the target of an act similar to Mariemaia's attack at the end of the Eve Wars. However, the rumours were constantly contradicting each other, so neither of the pilots could be certain about what was fact and what was fiction. All they could do was wait to see what the Defence Council would do in response to the rumours.

Duo shook his head when Quatre finished. "So we can expect to go back into full service soon, eh?"

Quatre and Trowa nodded.

"Do you think Heero and Wufei are aware of these rumours?" Duo finally asked.

"Heero would be definitely. Wufei would probably know too." Quatre said, getting a nod from Trowa.

"I've been able to keep track of everyone but Heero's whereabouts these past five months… it's odd… almost like he dropped off the face of the Earth Sphere…" Trowa said in concern.

"He's fine. You know he'll show up when he's needed." Duo said dismissively as he glanced up at the artificial sky of the colony.

"Well, can we get off this depressing topic? I know we'll be hearing more about it in the future. Why don't we go back inside and talk catch up? We haven't seen each other in five months, so it's been a bit lonely." Duo and Trowa nodded in agreement, grateful for both the warmth of the interior and the more friendly conversation.

* * *

Duo's prediction about Heero showing up whenever he was needed turned out to be accurate as he suddenly appeared at the ESUN headquarters in the Sanc Kingdom on Earth, wearing his denim jacket and leather gloves, indicating it was winter in the Sanc Kingdom as well.

Noin blinked in surprise as she noticed him looking around cautiously. "Hey, it's been a while." She said as she approached him.

"Where are Relena and Milliardo?" He asked quietly.

She sighed as she motioned for him to walk with her. "They're currently deliberating over the fate of the Tallgeese III. She's finally had time to think about what to do with it now that the more important matters have been dealt with."

"I hope she decides to keep it active…" He said grimly.

She frowned. "So you know about those rumours too, hm?"

"It's hard not to. They're especially common in space. I think that's where they originated, and where the threat may lie. I hate admitting it, but that is usually where trouble seems to originate…"

Noin nodded in agreement. "Considering that's where you five came from, I can wholeheartedly agree with those sentiments." She said with a grin as she went down a different hallway, forcing Heero to change direction to keep up with her.

"Let me guess why you're here: you want authorization to enter the Gundam's hangar, right?"

Heero nodded simply.

"It's rare to see you doing things formally." She said wryly as she looked at him.

Heero frowned in annoyance.

She chuckled at his annoyed expression. "Wait here, I'll go find them and get permission for you." She said, patting him quickly on the shoulder before walking away.

Heero frowned at her as she left, but said nothing as he leaned against the wall to wait for her return.

* * *

Relena sighed sadly as she stared up at the silent machine that was the Tallgeese III.

"You know the rumours, Relena. I relayed both Quatre and Trowa's messages to you almost as soon as I received them." Milliardo said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I know, but with the NJDs completed…" Hesitation was strong in her voice as she looked at him uncertainly.

"My instincts tell me that something is on the verge of happening… the Tallgeese III could be our only trump card if that should be the case."

"Your soldier's instincts aren't the only ones going off the deep end." Noin's voice echoed in the nearly empty space, causing both of them to jump in surprise.

Milliardo had his hand on his gun instinctively. "Noin!" Milliardo snapped as she chuckled in amusement.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it."

"What do you mean by that, Noin?" Relena asked in concern once she was able to calm herself down.

"Heero's here. He wants authorization to access the Gundam hangar. I think he's willing to be that mobile surveillance you were considering a few days ago…"

Milliardo frowned in concern at the unusual behaviour Heero was exhibiting.

"I'm fairly certain that I saw Wufei talking with Sally too. Two pilots at ESUN headquarters without being requested should be taken as a warning sign of things to come."

"Not to mention both Quatre and Trowa's warnings last month…" Milliardo growled warily.

Relena glanced between the two ex-soldiers in concern before sighing. "Give Heero access to the Wing Zero…" She said reluctantly before glancing at Milliardo. "As for the Tallgeese III, I don't want to be caught off guard for any reason, so consider yourself and the Tallgeese III on active duty as of this moment on."

He nodded in gratitude before glancing at Noin as she awaited his decision.

As a safety precaution requested by the other officials, both Relena and Milliardo had to acknowledge the authorization decision before any of the Gundam pilots were allowed to access their Gundams outside of a designated mission.

"Give Heero access to the Wing Zero… but remember to place restrictions on him… you know which ones."

Noin blinked in surprise before nodding. "Understood…" She said as she saluted them. "It's good to have the Tallgeese III back in action." She added quickly before leaving.

Relena shook her head. "I just hope we're making the right decision…"

Milliardo put a reassuring hand on her shoulder as they walked away from the Tallgeese III.

* * *

Meanwhile, Wufei and Sally were walking along the corridors in a different part of the building, close to where Relena and Milliardo were, also discussing the rumours.

"Do you honestly think they hold any weight?" Sally asked in concern, even though she already knew what his answer would be.

"Normally, I wouldn't care about rumours, but in this case, I think you should look into it. Something about these rumours seems different than the rumours I've heard in the past…" Wufei answered with a thoughtful frown, surprising Sally enough that she stopped, forcing him to stop as well.

"What do you mean?"

He closed his eyes for a few moments before reopening them with a grim expression. "The ones I usually hear, and dismiss, are the ones that are mostly consistent… but this one is too scattered with only a few points of consistency…" He frowned as he fell into silence.

"Normally that'd indicate a fake rumour, what makes this one so different?" Sally asked worriedly.

"Normally, I'd agree with you… but there's just something about the way this rumour feels… it feels purposely scattered, like somebody planted several versions of a rumour and let them go."

Sally frowned. "Well, I have never heard them personally, just the warnings that Trowa and Quatre have sent us. They probably feel the same way about the rumours that you do, that's probably why they warned us."

"The problem is if that's the case, then it's probably a false trail."

Sally nodded in agreement. "We've been thinking about that too. However, we don't have much to go on but what all of you have given us, so we need to look in the direction of the rumours."

Wufei folded his arms and nodded grimly. "Of course, that's why you have us… we can hunt down the source of these rumours."

Sally smiled gratefully as they resumed walking.

Noin paused as she noticed them while she was heading back to inform Heero about Relena and Milliardo's decision.

"Hey you two." She said as she fell into step with her fellow ex-Preventers.

"What brings you to this area? Were you looking for me?" Sally asked in concern, especially considering the conversation she had just been having.

"Not really, I had just been to see Milliardo and Relena to check on Tallgeese III's sentence."

"She's releasing it, isn't she?" Wufei asked warily and a subtle sigh of relief escaped the grim pilot when Noin nodded that went completely unnoticed by the two women.

"By the way, the Wing Zero will be operational too."

"What?" Wufei snapped at her idle comment, making both women jump and once again, they stopped.

"Heero's here too… he requested access to the Wing Zero and they just approved it. I was just on my way to inform him." Noin explained casually.

Wufei scowled as he resumed walking.

"What's wrong?" Sally asked in concern as they followed him.

"It's nothing; I just wasn't expecting him to have moved so quickly… or so openly. If he moved, I would have expected him to begin hacking the Earth Sphere's networks to try and find a hint about who the source of the rumours is."

"Perhaps his open actions are meant as a diversion… maybe he wants you guys to do the undercover stuff this time." Sally suggested half-heartedly.

Wufei remained silent as they reached an intersecting hallway and Noin departed in hopes that Heero had remained where she had asked him to stay.

An attempt to change the subject on Sally's part got Wufei talking again, but it was sparse and it seemed as though the pilot was only half-listening.

* * *

Less than an hour later saw Heero walking into the snow-covered ruins of the Sanc Kingdom castle as he paused and looked around for a few moments.

Anything that had survived the fires that had destroyed most of the castle was long gone, salvaged by the ESUN after it was founded and split between Milliardo and Relena or put into a museum for future generations to see.

He searched around the empty ruins for a few moments before shifting some snow and charred carpet to reveal a metal door and a blank panel.

_This had better work…_

He thought as he removed his glove and rested his hand on the blank panel. Only a slight flinch on Heero's part indicated how cold the panel was, even with the protection of the charred carpet to keep away some of the winter's chill.

The panel came to life as it scanned his hand for a few moments before the door beside it slid open, revealing a staircase that vanished into darkness.

The palm scanner was one of the technologies the ESUN had gained from the debris that had come from the C.E. universe, and no hacker in this universe could penetrate it yet, which is why it was chosen to be used to guard the hiding place of the Gundams.

He took one last wary glance around as he replaced his glove before descending the stairs, which were being illuminated by motion-activated lights.

Once he reached the bottom of the staircase, he found himself in a large bunker which was much larger than the castle above.

All five Gundams stood silently along the walls, bound by individual restraint systems to prevent unauthorized personnel from taking them. Unlike the system leading into the hangar, which was programmed to be accessible by those with permission from Relena and Milliardo, only the designated pilot could remove the restraint system for their specific Gundam.

Heero glanced around, taking note of everything in the hangar, when a sound caught his attention from behind. Figuring it was Milliardo or one of the others checking up on him, he turned around to face them. His eyes narrowed as he reached for his gun.

"I should have known…" He said icily before a shot echoed loudly within the hangar.

Heero's eyes widened as a trickle of blood escaped his mouth as he collapsed.

The shooter watched for a few moments as blood began to spread outward from the hole in Heero's chest before fleeing the scene, leaving Heero's rapidly emptying gaze to stare up at the roof of the hangar…

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yep! We're back up and running! And yes, this first chapter is huge. Sorry, but this shouldn't be expected to be a standard. Some of the chapters are really long like this, but others are what you've usually come to expect from me. For those of you who have read this before, well, unfortunately there isn't much that's changed. No new chapters or cutting-room floor stuff this time. However, this story is officially the largest story in my lineup, squishing Winged Destiny by well over 10,000 words. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this version.

And for those of you finding this from the straight Gundam Wing section, this is the sequel to a crossover story known as Winged Destiny, which can be found here:  
fanfiction . net /s/5564161/1/Winged_Destiny


	2. Emergency

Chapter 2: Emergency

Relena was in a meeting with the Defence Council, trying to decide what they should do about the rumours that were spreading like wildfire throughout the colonies, and if the Gundam pilots' various skills would be necessary to help stamp out the source of the rumours.

As though sensing something was wrong, she suddenly stood up, staring in the direction of the Gundam's hangar.

"What's wrong, Relena?" Une asked worriedly as the others instinctively stood up.

"I can't explain it… but I fear there's something terribly wrong at the hangar…" She said faintly before she ran out of the room.

Milliardo cursed as he chased after her, grabbing her arm to stop her. "Calm down." He growled as she tried to pull herself free.

"I can't… I don't know why, but I suddenly had this feeling of dread… I have to go see if everything's all right." She said as she tugged hard, but Milliardo's grip was like iron.

"Calm down… You shouldn't be seen running around in a panic; it wouldn't go well with the other politicians. I'll come with you, just in case." Milliardo growled, keeping his voice low so that only Relena could hear him, to avoid creating concern amongst employees that walked past.

Relena stopped struggling and nodded in understanding as she resumed walking at a brisk pace with Milliardo right behind her.

The only time Milliardo stepped before her was when they reached the main entrance and Milliardo opened the doors for her with a quick visual sweep to make sure it was safe before allowing her to leave the headquarters.

Pagan's grandson had taken his grandfather's place as Relena's servant when Pagan died and he was already waiting with the car when Relena and Milliardo exited the building.

"Colonel Noin informed me you were coming, ma'am." He said with a bow as he passed Relena her coat.

"Thank you, Alexander." She said gratefully as he passed Milliardo his winter uniform's jacket.

"Wait… I'm coming too." Wufei said coolly as he appeared behind them, donning a down jacket as he approached.

Milliardo was about to protest, but his protest died before it even left his mouth as he realized that Wufei would provide an extra degree of protection for Relena if her strange sense of dread proved to be true. He nodded and allowed Wufei to follow Relena into the car before nodding to Alexander.

"Thank you."

Alexander responded with a nod of his own as Milliardo slipped into the car. As he shut the door, Alexander cautiously checked to make sure his gun was loaded as a precaution before getting in and driving away from headquarters in an unhurried manner, to avoid raising any concerns or suspicions.

* * *

Up in the colonies, at the Winner mansion, Quatre and Rashid were loading luggage into his car. He sighed worriedly as Rashid shut the trunk.

"I don't know if I should tell them about that other rumour you told me… I doubt Trowa has heard about it yet…"

"Humph… it doesn't look like you need to worry about that, Master Quatre." Rashid said as he looked towards the entrance of the driveway.

Quatre blinked in confusion before looking in the same direction.

Duo waved as he and Trowa approached, both men carrying suitcases of their own.

"What are you two doing here?"

"We know you're going down to the Earth, so we decided to tag along. You can't be the only one allowed to see Relena and the others." Duo responded as Rashid reopened the trunk, allowing them to throw their belongings in with Quatre's.

Quatre sighed, knowing it was no use trying to convince them to stay behind. "All right, hop in…"

All three pilots sat in the back as Rashid and Ahmed sat up front.

"You seem worried, is there anything wrong?" Trowa asked in concern as the car left the driveway.

Quatre shook his head reluctantly before Rashid quickly chewed him out. "Tell them the truth, Master Quatre. They need to be on their guards." He growled, making Quatre slip slightly lower in his seat as Trowa and Duo glanced at him suspiciously.

Duo began elbowing Quatre in the ribs as Quatre bit his lip.

Finally, Quatre gave in after realizing that Duo wouldn't stop until he had caused bruising, although Quatre had his suspicions that it was already too late to prevent that from happening.

"All right… I'll tell you… Trowa, I doubt you've heard this rumour yet… Rashid just told me about it as he came back from the site, shortly after you two left…"

He hesitated for a moment before Duo made a threatening gesture with his elbow. "There are new rumours that we're to be targeted by assassins." Quatre blurted out quickly to avoid being elbowed again.

Duo and Trowa glanced at him grimly. "That wouldn't surprise me… if they were to kill us, the ESUN would be nearly defenceless. Only the Defence Council would stand in their way… and even the Defence Council couldn't hope to protect the Earth Sphere if our enemies were to get a hold of the plans for the NJD cancellers." Trowa said thoughtfully.

Duo nodded in grim agreement. "Looks like we'll have to be on our guards again…" "Whatever you do though, don't be reckless… it'd be senseless if you went off hunting down these would-be assassins and got yourselves killed." Rashid warned. "Don't worry… the only ones who are actually crazy enough to do something like that would be Wufei or Heero." Duo said dismissively as he received nods of agreement from the other two pilots.

Rashid stared at them suspiciously for a few moments before deciding they were being sincere and returned his attention to the road around them, just in case.

* * *

Trowa glanced around the space port warily. "Are you sure it's safe to take a public shuttle? If there is truth to those rumours, we'd be putting other passengers at risk…" He whispered warily.

Quatre made a dismissive gesture. "Don't worry. I'm registered for a private shuttle and we're using aliases to board the public shuttle. If they're planning something, they'll go for the private shuttle. That way, nobody will be hurt. It's on an automatic guidance system that will take it directly to an abandoned airport in the middle of nowhere."

Duo grinned. "We shoulda known you'd have something like that up your sleeve."

Quatre nodded. "I do it all the time. Even if it weren't threats against me as a Gundam pilot, I still run the risks of having attempts on my life because of who I am. Thankfully, nothing has happened during transport yet, but you can never be too careful."

"How much does that cost you if you're forced to do it all the time?" Trowa asked in bewilderment.

Quatre shook his head. "You don't want to know… I'm also up for the bill if the shuttle is destroyed, so I've been grateful it hasn't happened yet…"

"I am so glad I simply run a scrap yard…" Duo muttered under his breath, causing the other two to break out in laughter as they boarded the shuttle.

Rashid and Ahmed had been ordered to stay behind, but they still insisted on seeing the three off from the space port.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Ahmed asked worriedly as the pilots vanished into a crowd of people boarding the shuttle with the only indication of their position being Trowa because he was the tallest person in the crowd.

Rashid shook his head. "They'll be fine… they've survived almost a year in a completely different universe, even participating in their war, and they've survived our own Eve Wars. However, we'll be there as back-up on the off chance that they do need help…"

Ahmed nodded in understanding as Rashid patted him on the shoulder and the two Maganacs left the space port, hoping that back-up wouldn't be needed at all.

* * *

The two shuttles were launched at the same time, but would be taking different courses to land on Earth. The private shuttle was said to be heading directly for the ESUN's private port, while the public shuttle would land at the Sanc Kingdom public port.

Duo sat at the window and watched the decoy shuttle carefully as Quatre and Trowa looked over at the window occasionally to avoid drawing unwanted attention to the other shuttle.

The trip seemed like it was going to be another uneventful one until the shuttles were close to the atmospheric re-entry warning zone, which was the point of no return if shuttles were experiencing trouble… and the decoy exploded. The force of the explosion was great enough to make the shuttle shudder violently.

Terrified screams from the other passengers covered up Duo's loud cursing as he held his hands over his eyes.

The pilot's voice rang out to try and calm the other passengers as Quatre and Trowa checked to make sure Duo was all right.

Unfortunately he had been looking directly at the explosion and he had lost his vision, although with their experiences they knew the blindness would be temporary, and if it wasn't they would get him to a hospital immediately.

Thankfully his vision had almost completely recovered by the time the shuttle had landed.

While all of the other passengers were to be examined by medical units that had been put on standby when the pilots of the shuttle reported the explosion to the space port, the pilots were able to bypass it and head for the exit by slipping past the chaotic mobs of concerned families trying to get past officials to get to their loved ones.

As they got outside, Duo's slight wince at the sunlight went unnoticed by the other two as they stared in surprise at who was waiting for them with a car.

"Colonel Noin? What's wrong?" Quatre asked as he noticed her expression.

"I'm relieved to see that all three of you are here, that saves me the trouble of coming to retrieve Duo and Trowa…" She said grimly as Quatre repeated his question. "I'm here to take you to the hospital."

"What? We're fine!" Duo said indignantly before Trowa put a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't think she means any of us… although you should have your eyes checked." He added, causing Duo to shoot him an annoyed look before they looked at Noin in concern.

Noin sighed once she was certain they were done. "You're right… Heero's been shot…"

The colour drained from the pilot's faces. Normally, that situation wouldn't bother them considering how often it happened, but since Quatre's warning, they had a feeling it wasn't simply a grazing Heero had received.

"Is he…?" Duo asked weakly.

Noin shook her head. "I don't know… the last thing I heard was that he was in surgery… and that it wasn't looking good." She said, trying to hide the shaking that had creeped into her tone.

"They're certainly gutsier than we gave them credit for…" Trowa said faintly.

"Come on, we shouldn't be standing around here. Let's go to the hospital." Quatre said shakily as Noin nodded in agreement, motioning for them to get into the car.

Noin wanted to ask what they meant, but she had a feeling the questions she had were already answered as she saw the report for the destroyed shuttle on a screen inside the terminal.

* * *

As soon as the car rolled to a stop, the three pilots leapt from the vehicle and ran into the hospital, ignoring demands by hospital staff members for them to stop running.

Noin had told them everything they needed to know to make a straight run for the private waiting room where everyone else was waiting for news about Heero's condition.

Relena jumped as they burst into the waiting room, panting in exhaustion. "Thank goodness Noin was able to get into contact with all of you." She said in relief as Milliardo ushered them into the waiting room to sit down.

Noin sighed as she walked in after them, shutting the door behind her. "They were all on the same shuttle; I didn't have to do a thing."

"Have you gotten any word on his condition?" Quatre asked worriedly.

Wufei shook his head as he sat in the corner with his arms folded across his chest. "So far as we know, they're working like maniacs on him… but that's it…" Quatre was surprised to hear worry in his normally cold colleague's voice.

"I noticed we almost lost you three as well." Noin said with a frown.

Relena's eyes widened as she looked at them. "What happened?"

Milliardo and Wufei watched them quietly, but one look in their eyes was enough to show their concern for their fellow pilots.

"We can't deny it, so we might as well tell you what had happened. Quatre's decoy shuttle exploded before re-entry. We have a feeling all of us are being targeted in order to get rid of the ESUN's only real line of defence. No offense to the Defence Council, but without us, you guys don't stand much of a chance against a genuine all-out attack." Trowa admitted with a grim expression.

Reluctantly, the Defence Council nodded in agreement.

Relena remained silent as she sat, pale at the thought that she may have lost four of her closest friends and allies.

Milliardo frowned. "That's it. From this moment on, none of you are to return to space. You're all confined to headquarters and specified living quarters."

"They can stay at the mansion." Relena said shakily. "I don't want them to be somewhere that's easy to target, and they can pull double duty as my personal guard… if none of you have any problems with that." She said uncertainly.

When the Gundams were being granted to them after they had been built, the pilots had been given the choice to be her personal guards by some other officials but they had turned it down adamantly, choosing to go with the current arrangement in order to have the impression of a completely peaceful life.

"I doubt any of us have any problems with it now. Sticking together would probably make us all one big target, but at least they'll have a harder time attacking us all together than they would if we were separated…" Quatre said as the others nodded in agreement.

"All right… I'll make the arrangements when we return to headquarters…" Une said as she wrote it down.

"Now let's just hope that stubborn jackass lives up to his reputation…" Duo said grimly as everyone's attention turned towards the waiting room door, waiting and hoping for some good news.

* * *

Tense hours passed as they waited for any news on Heero. Finally, an exhausted doctor came in, still wearing the bloody surgery gown.

Relena and the others were pale with shock at how much blood covered his gown, especially since they had a feeling that they knew whose blood it was.

"Doctor…?" Quatre asked faintly.

The doctor shook his head. "That man must be made of Gundanium himself…" He looked around at the mixed expressions of guarded hope and concern. "He'll be fine so long as he doesn't do anything strenuous."

Duo scoffed in relief as the others seemed to relax a slight bit. "Getting him to avoid doing anything 'strenuous' is like trying to stop a hurricane: it ain't happening."

The doctor shook his head. "You're going to have to try. I'm sorry, Lady Relena, but he'll be out of action for at least two or three months and even when he's out of the woods, there will still be a risk that his wounds could reopen."

Relena managed a weak laugh in relief. "We'll try as hard as we can to keep him from doing anything but recovering."

"Can we see him?" Quatre asked tentatively.

The doctor shook his head again. "Even immediate family wouldn't be allowed to see him for twenty four hours after a surgery like the one he was just in. He's still in rough shape and we have to monitor his condition carefully for the next week. Normally, it's against hospital policy to make exceptions, but I have a feeling you'd go over my head anyways." He hesitated for a moment as Milliardo nodded in bemused agreement. "So if we give him the all clear by the end of the week, you'll be allowed to see him then, if you can all wait that long." He glanced around the room to reluctant nods.

"What about those preparations we requested?" Une asked in concern.

"Don't worry, General Une. They've been taken care of. Mr… Hirano will be just fine in our care. The security agents are already outside of his recovery room dressed as police officers. His file states he was shot by police during an undisclosed incident. Nothing indicates that a Gundam pilot is in that room."

"Thank you Dr. Erickson. You've gone well beyond your required duties and I'm in your debt." Relena said gratefully.

Dr. Erickson shook his head. "There is no debt, ma'am. It was an honour to be requested by you. If he causes you any trouble when he's discharged, give me a call."

Relena nodded in agreement.

"Now, you should all go home and get some rest. You shouldn't stay here or else it will ruin all of General Une's hard work in trying to protect him while he's unable to protect himself." Dr. Erickson snapped.

"Are those your doctor's orders?" Trowa asked in bemusement.

The doctor chuckled and nodded. "Yes, you can consider those to be my doctor's orders for all of you. Now please go." He said, before leaving the room.

"You heard the man, Relena." Trowa said as he noticed Relena's reluctance.

She sighed in hesitation before allowing Noin and Sally to steer her out of the room, leaving Milliardo and Une with the pilots.

"Well?" Wufei asked as he noticed their expressions.

"The Gundams are going to be placed in your individual care. While you're residing at the manor, the Gundams will be stored in the hangar that is connected to Relena's home. It had been built in case you had agreed to the other option, or for times of emergency, like the one we're in now."

The pilots stared at Milliardo in surprise. They had been to Relena's home on many occasions, but had never once seen anything that looked like a hangar. Une smirked at their reactions.

"You've never seen it because it is hidden underground, just like the other hangar. Come on, I'll take you to the hangar so you can get your Gundams." The pilots nodded as Une led them from the waiting room.

Milliardo sighed as he walked out and stared at the private ICU room that was guarded by two of his best agents. "Heero… you'd better survive this, or else I'll put a few more holes in your body…" He growled softly, although his concerned look betrayed his threat, before he walked away.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Feels good to be uploading again. Glad to see so many returning Faves showing up in my in-box too. I hope you'll enjoy this one as much as you enjoyed Winged Destiny and a big hearty welcome to new readers! As for details on this chapter? You really, really don't want to know how much it costs Quatre for the decoy shuttle. He has a separate account set aside from both his personal and his business accounts for it, and that's all you need to know about that. Dr. Erickson is not the same doctor who dealt with Duo's stitches in the first story, but he does show up a few more times. As for Heero? Well. You'll just have to wait and see if he can pull through.


	3. Guarding Secrets

Chapter 3: Guarding Secrets

A month later saw an exhausted-looking Duo staring blankly at a TV.

"_And now we return to our top story: the legendary pilot Heero Yuy passed away yesterday afternoon. However, details have been scarce and although Lady Peacecraft is said to be still going on with her duties at the ESUN headquarters, reports say she will be soon taking some time off to mourn the pilot's death. His fellow pilots have been in seclusion since the news was announced and have been unavailable for comment. Commander Milliardo Peacecraft's press conference earlier today revealed little about how or why the Gundam pilot had died, except to say that an investigation into his death will be launched as soon as the autopsy report was completed. Our attempts to reach the Commander for comment have gone unanswered. Wha-"_

The TV went black as Duo shut it off. "That's all they can talk about…" He said grimly.

There was an icy scoff from beside him, causing him to glance casually in that direction. "Feeding them false information? That's a bold move on Milliardo's part…" Heero said as he lay in a bed next to Duo.

Duo shook his head. "You know full well it's to draw out whoever's responsible for shooting you, since you seem so intent on not telling us."

"I told Milliardo everything I could. I don't remember most of what happened." Heero said as he closed his eyes.

"And we called you on that. We know you're lying." Duo said with a shake of his head as he rested the back of the chair against the wall, allowing it to balance on the two back legs.

"Why do you look like hell?" Heero asked, trying to divert the conversation away from their current topic.

"Haven't slept in days… been busy keeping up appearances. The others don't look so hot either, if it's any consolation."

Heero rolled his eyes before trying to sit up, wincing in pain as he did so.

"Hey, don't strain yourself, you idiot. You'll be given hell by Relena." Duo said in concern as he brought the chair back onto all four legs.

"Like I care…" Heero growled against the pain as he succeeded, resting his head in exhaustion against the wall.

Relena had taken it upon herself to check up on Heero at meal time under the guise of checking up on a sick friend that had been brought to the ESUN's medical facility for treatment.

"Your funeral…" Duo said with a shrug.

"I'll be having one." Heero said wryly.

"True. I have a feeling it'll be a pretty touching ceremony too. We're pulling out our best acts just for you." Duo said with a wry grin as Heero tried to check to see if there was anything else on TV, to avoid more annoying idle chatter with Duo.

"Forget it. All the stations can talk about is your death. If they're this crazy over one dead pilot, imagine the chaos all five of us caused."

"Humph…" Heero shut off the TV in annoyance and resigned himself to talking with Duo until Duo's relief came.

* * *

Relena sighed as she and Une walked down a hallway, heading towards Heero's room.

"We should consider moving him to the mansion soon. We only brought him here temporarily until a room could be modified for his needs. It's too risky keeping him here for too long." Une said quietly so that only Relena could hear.

Relena nodded. "The doctor will be coming to examine him later today. Once he's given us the 'all clear', then we'll move him." Relena replied in the same quiet tone.

"So who's taking over for Duo? I'm sure he'll be on the verge of shooting… our guest… himself soon. Like the last time he had to watch over our guest. Our guest manages to annoy him quite easily." Une asked in amusement.

Relena giggled in amusement. "I know… they know each other too well. They know how to aggravate each other. I have no meetings this afternoon, so I'll be watching him personally."

"I'm sure he'll be pleased by that revelation." Une said wryly. "Still trying to get him to tell you who shot him?"

"We already know that he was facing his attacker from the wounds, and Dr. Erickson confirmed that there was no damage that would cause him to forget anything, so we know he knows."

"You're afraid he's going to go after his attacker once he's able to?" Une asked in concern.

Relena nodded as they reached the door. She knocked carefully before announcing who it was. She prepared herself for the part she hated most as the door opened a crack and Duo's gun poked out before he glanced warily at them to make sure it was who they said they were.

Duo sighed in relief as he opened the door wide enough to let them in.

Relena frowned as she noticed that Heero was sitting up against his doctor's orders.

Heero seemed to ignore them as they talked with Duo, asking him how Heero had been.

"So who's my relief?" Duo asked curiously as Une glanced at Relena.

"I have the rest of the afternoon off, so I'll be doing it personally."

"Like hell you will…" Heero growled icily.

Relena glanced down at him coolly. "I will be whether you like it or not. The others need to rest, so I'll be taking a shift." She said with a tone to match her expression as she shot a knowing look at Duo, who simply shrugged.

Heero looked away in irritation as Duo grinned in amusement. "Have fun you two…"

* * *

Une shook her head as he followed her out.

"I am so glad it's not me in that bed… I wouldn't wanna be the one who has to face her wrath…" He admitted as he stretched casually.

Une couldn't help but chuckle in amusement as they walked away. "I'm sure we don't have to worry about either of them. Besides, it's not like there are any weapons in the room. He can't hurt her no matter how badly she drives him to want to."

Duo looked at her sceptically. "We are talking about the same guy, aren't we? He doesn't need weapons."

She shrugged casually. "I seriously doubt he would be willing to do anything to harm Relena, even if she does drive him to that point. Besides, he can barely sit up let alone do something so physically daunting like attack somebody."

"True… I guess you got me there." He said with a shrug.

"Oh yeah, there's supposed to be a shipment of upgrades coming for all six Gundams, you'd better go meet up with the others at the shipping docks." Une said.

Duo grinned and thanked her before parting ways with the Defence Council General.

* * *

Relena shook her head as she heard Duo's parting comments through the door. She really needed to chew that man out at some time… or better yet she'd have to talk to Hilde about him.

A small smile appeared as she thought about what Hilde would do to Duo if she was told that Duo was giving Relena trouble. She quickly composed herself as she turned to face Heero, who was still staring at the opposite wall.

"I can be just as stubborn as you, Heero. I'll stay here for as long as I have to in order to find out who it was that tried to kill you."

"Then you'll have to wait until hell freezes over, because I will keep saying that I don't remember." He said as he glared at her.

She matched his glare with one of her own. She had grown to know him quite well since they first met eight years before and had learned how to counter his various attempts to get her to back off something he didn't want to deal with.

After a few moments he closed his eyes and looked away just like she knew he would.

She sighed as she sat in Duo's vacated chair. "You really need to stop being so stubborn. All of us are in this together. You don't need to take care of things by yourself anymore."

"Why would you care so much anyways?" Heero asked as his breathing became noticeably laboured.

She stood and forced him to lay back down with a concerned look on her face. "You should know that answer by now… I care because you're one of my best friends. I trust you with my life and I expect you to be able to do the same with me." She said softly before she sat back down once she was satisfied there was no way he'd be trying to sit up again.

"You're a stubborn woman…" He growled.

She snickered in amusement. "And you only have yourself and the others to blame for it. I've had to become stubborn in order to keep you five in line."

Heero closed his eyes, but she knew he wasn't trying to rest, no matter how much his body may have been screaming for it.

She shook her head. "I mean it though. I'm not leaving until you tell me something."

"Then you'll be here until we die."

"That's fine by me." She said with a sly smirk as she noticed his irritated expression.

He went silent in order to avoid slipping up and saying something in his exhausted state.

Relena was fine with his attempts to withhold information as she sat silently beside him, keeping a watchful gaze on him.

* * *

The shipment was running late, so the pilots had no choice but to sit around and wait.

Quatre was on the phone with Rashid, checking up on what was happening with the company.

"I wish those idiots with the shipment would hurry up…" Wufei growled with impatience.

"Being late is typical of Earth transport services; you should know that by now, Wufei. They have to go through traffic and other problems to get to their destination. The Defence Council couldn't give the shipment special priority in order to avoid attracting unwanted attention." Trowa said calmly as he sipped some coffee.

Wufei made some irritated noises in response.

"Don't worry. Everything's fine down here." Quatre's conversation could be heard as the others fell silent and watched him. He nodded at something Rashid said. "I'm glad to hear that everything's going well. I should get going now…" He frowned. "Wait… what do you mean by that? Rashid, please tell me!" He pleaded before looking at his phone in concern.

"What's wrong?" Duo asked as he hung up.

Quatre glanced at them and shrugged as he leaned against a cabinet. "I don't know… but before Rashid hung up, he said we should watch out for Heero… then he told me to pay no heed to him and hung up before I could ask him about it. However, I don't think he meant it as a sign we should be watching out for Heero's wellbeing."

"Does he mean we should be suspicious of Heero?" Duo questioned in shock.

"Probably… Rashid has good instincts. He probably senses something is off with this situation and wanted us to be on our guards." Trowa said thoughtfully.

"But why? In Heero's condition, it isn't likely he'll be able to do anything against the ESUN. Besides, we all know Heero. He has never been able to harm Relena no matter how many times he knew he had to in order to protect himself." Quatre asked worriedly.

"However, if you think about it… he's being moved to the mansion when the doctor says it's clear to move him… He'll be in prime position to strike once he's recovered and we've lowered our guards." Wufei growled.

"And no matter how loyal we think he is, there is that x-factor of his profession…"

"You really think he'd take a job over a long-standing mission?" Duo asked grimly.

"His behaviour in that other universe shows us that he can still stab us in the back if he's under a great deal of pressure… Unfortunately, he keeps such a tight rein on his life… we don't even know what kind of motives he could have for it, so we'll just have to keep an eye on him. We shouldn't warn anyone else about Rashid's warning until we get some facts to back it up. It could be completely unfounded." Quatre warned.

The others nodded in agreement as Sally and Noin joined them.

"What's wrong you guys? You seem upset." Sally asked worriedly.

"We've been waiting for the shipment for too long." Wufei lied with ease.

The others nodded in agreement. "Not to mention, keeping up this act about Heero's death is causing us to lose a lot of sleep." Duo growled in annoyance.

Noin chuckled in amusement. "We're really sorry you guys for everything you're being put through. The shipment's long wait time is for security reasons. I believe it's at the ESUN gates right now, actually. It just needs to go through the security check and it should be cleared to come in. As for Heero… well, you know the reasons for that as well as we do."

Everyone seemed to ignore her comment about Heero when they heard about how close the shipment was.

"So we're taking the shipment from here to the hangar ourselves?" Duo asked curiously.

Noin nodded. "Yes. We've got our own trucks ready to transfer the loads onto, and then it's all yours."

"Great! We missed working on our Gundams." Trowa said as he noticed the trucks coming towards them. The pilots stood and watched them eagerly.

"We knew you'd like that… At least the weather's starting to get a slight bit warmer… that will make things easier. Come on, Noin, our job is done now… so we'd better get back to work."

Noin sighed as Sally pulled on her uniform's sleeve. "Have fun you guys…" She said before following her colleague from the office.

The pilots waved slightly at the two women before eagerly watching the trucks arrive.

* * *

Relena sighed as she sat beside Heero, who had seemingly fallen asleep. However, a light tap at the door caused his eyes to open and glance at the door warily.

"Why am I not surprised?" She said with a shake of her head as she went to check to see who it was.

"Sally?" Sally slipped inside after Relena opened the door wide enough to let her in.

"I just came by to inform you that the shipment for the Gundam upgrades has finally arrived."

"What about the shipment for the Wing Zero's upgrades?" Relena asked worriedly.

"Don't worry about them. The company was a bit confused when we insisted that they still ship the Wing Zero's upgrades, but I saw six trucks pull up."

Relena sighed in relief.

"Humph… do they really need upgrades?" Heero asked sceptically.

"These upgrades are to improve their performance, based on the reports you five filed after that incident. Yes, it took us this long before we could get around to acting on them." Sally said flatly as she noted Heero's narrowed eyes.

"Don't mind him. He knows I won't back down and I think it's getting to him. But I know it'll be a long time before he gives in." Relena said as she shook her head.

Sally couldn't help but chuckle. "Whenever you two butt heads, it's always amusing."

She shrugged helplessly at the dark looks they gave her. "Anyways, what do you want done with the Wing Zero's upgrades?"

"Depends…" Relena glanced uncertainly at Heero.

"Let the others take the upgrades to the mansion's hangar. Once I've recovered enough, I'll install them on the Wing Zero personally." He instructed casually.

Relena and Sally nodded in understanding. "However, if word was to get out that the Wing Zero was taking part in tests, what would we say? The replacement pilots are all working as the new ambassador's assistants, so we can't say it's one of them." Sally asked as she glanced at Relena worriedly.

"Film the testing of the other four Gundams and the Tallgeese III. The Wing Zero is close in design with all five of them, so any problems that crop up in the others can be addressed with the Wing Zero without having to test it. However, I am a bit worried about the Wing Zero's transformation capabilities bringing up new issues…" Relena sighed as she tried to think of a way around it. "Unfortunately, unless we lie and say it's one of the others piloting the Wing Zero, there seems to be no way to deal with that."

"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine so long as it can function in battle without any trouble. That's all that matters." Heero said dismissively.

"All right… you heard him." Relena said reluctantly.

Sally nodded. "I understand: once the upgrades are finished, we'll begin testing." She said before slipping out the door.

"Thank you…"

Relena had to quickly hide the surprise from her face as she turned to face Heero. "I'm not doing it for you; I'm doing it for the sake of the Wing Zero and the others. They don't need to be babysitting the Wing Zero if the upgrades fail and cause the Wing Zero to malfunction while they're in a desperate battle." She said stiffly.

He couldn't help but chuckle in amusement. "That's fine by me… I wouldn't trust them to protect the Wing Zero anyways."

She sighed and shook her head. "Don't worry about the upgrades. Just focus on recovering so you can help us. You're our secret weapon now…"

Heero nodded in understanding as she sat beside him again.

"I'll back off for now, but I still want to know who it was that shot you. I'm not going to give up easily."

Heero frowned in irritation, but decided to keep his silence rather than spark another argument with the stubborn woman.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Sorry it's late, but at least it's here. Yes, Heero's alive, sorry to disappoint anyone thinking I'd kill off a main character.


	4. Testing

Chapter 4: Testing

A day later saw Relena sighing as she sat in a control tower at the ESUN's private air and space port. Thankfully for everyone involved, the snow had melted, making the port a perfect spot to hold the testing. The port had to be shut down for the tests, much to the annoyance of politicians whose planes and shuttles were forced to land at the public air and space ports.

Noin and Relena were overseeing the tests for the five mobile suits.

"Did you warn Duo about the upgraded scythe?" Noin asked in concern.

Relena smirked as she shook her head. "No… considering they seemed to have found out all about the Gundams in that other universe, I was kind of disappointed that I didn't get to see their reactions to them. I felt I needed to keep some of the upgrades' surprises secret in order to have a bit of enjoyment."

Noin could only roll her eyes at Relena. "What has gotten into you lately?"

Relena shrugged uncertainly as she sipped a cup of coffee.

Both women were wearing their winter coats, despite the tower being heated.

"Are you guys ready to start? Remember: these upgrades made the Gundams lighter and faster, but didn't forsake their durability. You can be rough without worrying; however… please don't do too much damage." Noin said into the communication line.

The pilots responded with amusement before they stood facing each other. None of them seemed willing to attack for a few moments until the Deathscythe Hell took aim at the Heavyarms, only to stumble and fall upon the activation of its thrusters.

"_Okay. That hurt."_ Duo grumbled as the Deathscythe Hell was forced to block an attack from the Tallgeese III with the shaft of its beam scythe.

"_Were you even listening when Noin said that the Gundams are lighter now? You need to readjust the Deathscythe Hell's operating parameters to take that into account, Duo."_ Trowa instructed boredly as the Heavyarms dodged an attack from the Altron's dragon claws.

"_Yes mother."_ Duo said sarcastically as the Sandrock stepped in to defend the downed Deathscythe Hell from the Tallgeese III.

Relena and Noin chuckled in amusement as they listened to the pilot's conversations.

"_I must admit, these upgrades really help enhance our individual fighting styles. Give my thanks to the scientists!"_ Quatre said as the Sandrock threw one of its Heat Shotels at the Tallgeese III, who narrowly dodged it before being rammed as the Sandrock's thrusters roared to life in an attempt to quickly retrieve its weapon.

"Don't worry Quatre; they'll get all the information regarding this test once it's over. Your thanks will be listed in the report. I'm sure they'll be pleased." Noin replied with an amused smile on her face, which faded slightly as she caught Relena's poor attempt at hiding the sigh that had escaped from her.

"What's wrong?" Noin asked.

"I had just hoped that the Gundams wouldn't have to be mobilized for combat…"

"Honestly? You're not the only one… The rest of us feel the same way. However, that's the situation we're faced with, so we have to deal with it and hope that it doesn't last too long."

"_Sorry about that… did you miss me?"_ Duo's voice came across the communication line as the Deathscythe Hell stood and fired its shield at the Altron, which was distracted by the Sandrock. The shield was deflected by a barrage of bullets from the Heavyarms, who seemed to have been waiting for the Deathscythe Hell to return to the field.

"Have there been any problems so far?" Relena asked in concern. _"Aside from Duo's misstep, I think everything's fine."_ Quatre said. The others agreed as the testing continued.

Despite the apparent ferocity of the fighting, none of the Gundams were sustaining any serious damage. The Deathscythe Hell had backed away from the fighting as an apparent glitch had locked up its Hyper Jammers. The others agreed not to attack the Deathscythe Hell until the glitch was dealt with as a courtesy to their fellow pilot.

* * *

Duo blinked in curiosity as he noted the new control he had installed into the control panel once he had found and fixed the problem with the Hyper Jammers' controls.

"I wonder what this does…" He muttered out of curiosity and hit the control.

The Deathscythe Hell swung its scythe at the Heavyarms, and the scythe blade disconnected from the shaft to reveal a heat rod.

Noin cursed as she saw where the blade was headed. "I think we should have told him about it..."

Relena grabbed the microphone to warn Trowa, but Duo was faster.

"_Shit! Trowa! Watch out!"_ He yelled.

The Heavyarms barely managed to react, forcing the heat rod to wrap itself around the Gatling gun that was its arm and the scythe blade to embed in the Heavyarms' shoulder.

"_Sorry!"_ Duo said shakily as the Deathscythe Hell pulled, releasing the blade and the heat rod from the Heavyarms' arm.

"_Are you all right, Trowa?"_ Quatre asked in concern as the fights stopped and the Gundams turned towards the Heavyarms, which was examining the Gatling gun.

"_Physically, I'm fine. The shoulder feels a bit disjointed, but otherwise I think its fine. The Gatling gun though…"_ He trailed off as the others looked at it more closely.

The heat rod had melted the chambers of the gun, some of them completely through.

"_Great. Make Duo more lethal. We'd better watch ourselves on the battlefield."_ Wufei said in irritation.

"You'd better watch that carefully Duo. We were never able to test it to see how many activations of the heat rod the shaft can handle. It may break under the strain of combat." Noin said as she tried to hide the amusement from her voice.

"As for you Trowa, we're sorry. The Gatling gun was made of titanium because we hadn't been able to manufacture one from Gundanium before the Gundams were ordered into service. That's why the heat rod melted it so easily. We were forced to scrap production of it because of everything that happened back then, and it was never put back into production until we ordered the upgrades. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready in time."

A slight smirk appeared on Trowa's face, as though he was amused by her explanation.

"_I see… that's fine. I'll set up the replacement gun in the meantime."_

"By the way, you can thank Relena for not informing you about the heat rod, Duo. She wanted it to be a surprise."

Relena slapped Noin lightly on the arm, causing the older woman to laugh as Duo's curses were heard over the radio.

"_Since the Heavyarms can no longer continue to fight, the testing is over. Come to the meeting room so we can talk."_ Milliardo instructed as the Tallgeese III put away its weapons.

The others followed the Tallgeese III's lead as Relena and Noin made their way from the control tower.

Surprisingly little damage had been done to the port grounds, but crews began looking over it as soon as they were gone to determine and repair any damage they did cause so that the port could be reopened as soon as possible.

* * *

Back inside the headquarters, the pilots, Milliardo and Relena met in a small conference room to discuss the testing.

Duo sighed as he leaned against the wall. "So what's with these upgrades? Sure, they take care of the issues we noted while in the Cosmic Era, but some of them were a bit on the extreme side if you ask me."

"Like Duo's new scythe." Wufei snapped in irritation.

"Hey, it wasn't your suit I hit, why are you so irritated with it?"

"I think it's just because we have enough weapons, getting more weapons is a bit on the extreme side." Quatre theorized with a shrug.

"Either that or he still holds a grudge for the argument you two got into in the other universe and is just looking for any excuse to reignite it." Trowa's idle thought received him a dark look from Wufei, but the other pilot chose to keep his opinions to himself as he sat away from the others.

"Either way… I doubt I'll be using it too often… I'll stick with close range combat." Duo said with a shake of his head.

Milliardo and Relena waited until they had quieted down before speaking.

"These upgrades were to improve your efficiency. If something were to happen, we don't want it dragged out to become another full-fledged war. We want it crushed and destroyed before it has time to root itself too deeply." The pilots nodded in understanding at Milliardo's words.

"But besides that, these upgrades seem completely unnecessary. The funds for these upgrades could have gone elsewhere." Quatre said in concern.

Milliardo chuckled. "I should have known your business sense would kick in."

Quatre shrugged in embarrassment, trying hard to ignore the amused smirks coming from his fellow pilots.

"However, we've covered that train of thought too. Gundanium is becoming easier to refine, and it's becoming more advanced and feasible for use on a smaller scale. Consider the Gundams as mobile testing grounds."

The others stared at him in surprise. "In high risk areas for natural disasters, we're considering building structures out of Gundanium, but with Gundanium the way it is now… it's impossible." Milliardo explained before nodding to Relena to continue.

She nodded in thanks before continuing. "As Gundanium and its refining process become easier to manufacture and for less money, we're using the Gundams to test it to make sure Gundanium doesn't lose any of its strength in stressful situations. If it succeeds, we hope that we'll be able to use it in high risk regions without fear of collapse sometime in the future."

Duo let out an impressed whistle.

Trowa smiled slightly. "So it seems good things do come from machinations of war…"

"I guess that clears away any concerns I had." Quatre said with an impressed tone.

"If we're done here, I should go back to the hangar and repair the Heavyarms. I don't want to be caught off guard if anything were to happen." Trowa said as he stood and went over to the door, leaning beside it to make sure there was nothing else the two leaders had to tell them.

The others looked to Relena and Milliardo.

"If there's nothing else, I guess we are done. The testing went really well, and that's all that matters." Relena said, receiving nods from the pilots before they began to leave.

Milliardo put a hand on Duo's shoulder, stopping him from leaving until the others were out of the room. "Relena was never made aware of this… I doubt she would approve… but the heat rod within the Deathscythe Hell's scythe shaft is long enough to wrap around an enemy mobile suit of standard size and embed the blade into the cockpit or nuclear reactor." Milliardo said quietly.

Duo stared at Milliardo in shock. "How…?" He trailed off weakly, unable to ask the question.

"We ran it on a simulator that functions similar to the ZERO system, and that result happened to come up on several simulations. I felt it was best to warn you instead of letting you go into a no-kill battle and finding that out the hard way."

Duo sighed and nodded, patting the older man on the shoulder. "Thanks for the heads up, Milliardo."

Milliardo nodded as Duo ran to catch up with the other pilots.

"You told him?" Noin asked as she approached.

Milliardo simply nodded in response before she went over the Tallgeese III's damage report.

* * *

Trowa, Duo and Quatre were repairing the Heavyarms and talk swung back to Rashid's warning about their comrade.

"Those five months that you couldn't account for… did you ever ask him about them while you were on watch?" Duo asked as he and Quatre worked on attaching the new Gatling gun to the Heavyarms' arm.

"Yes… I did. He said he was laying low since he had nothing to do during that time… but I have a feeling he's being as truthful about that as he is about not knowing who tried to kill him." Trowa said sceptically as he removed the destroyed shoulder parts, tossing them to the ground dismissively since they were burned and damaged beyond any further use.

"Tch. Why is he piling on the lies like that? He hasn't done that since the Eve Wars. Damnit, I wish we could just ask him what's wrong…" Duo said in frustration as he gave directions to Quatre, who was operating a crane to lift and line up the Gatling gun so that it could be attached to the arm joint by Trowa once the shoulder was ready to handle the weight of the Gatling gun again.

"Despite the fact that he would probably deny that anything is wrong, you'll have your chance to ask sooner than we thought." Wufei's voice echoed in the hangar as he approached.

"What do you mean?" Quatre asked as he paused behind the controls of the crane.

"I overheard some of the security officers talking. The doctor came back while we were in discussions about the upgrades. Heero's tests were clean and his x-rays came back fine. Apparently the doctor said that he's healing really well. Even though simple acts like sitting up still exhaust him, the doctor says that's to be expected for some time. Unfortunately, he says that at the rate Heero is healing, he may be over that sooner than most normal people would be. The doctor says he's good enough to move now… which means he'll be here within an hour or so."

"Well then, if we want to begin surveillance on him, we'd better finish with these repairs…" Trowa said grimly as he resumed his work, quickening the pace.

"I still can't believe we're being forced to watch one of our own…" Quatre said reluctantly as he resumed aligning the Gatling gun under Duo's directions.

Duo kept his silence as Wufei came to help Trowa with the shoulder repairs. He agreed with Quatre, but something in the way Heero seemed to purposely aggravate him whenever it was his turn to watch his fellow pilot made him deeply concerned…

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Sorry about the lack of an update last week. I accidentally forgot about it. Here's chapter 4. A bit slow, but a new toy that will make more of an appearance in the third story is revealed. Enjoy!


	5. A Good Soldier Gone Bad

Chapter 5: A Good Soldier Gone Bad

Relena's mansion was an extremely quiet place, with minimal staff. She didn't like being waited on most of the time, so the only employees were a small security force who stayed primarily on the grounds, a small cleaning staff, and a small cooking staff. Alexander was the only other member of Relena's staff and he was with her most of the day, turning the mansion into the perfect place for a betrayal, if it were to happen.

At the request of Relena, the other pilots agreed to look after Heero to ensure he did nothing to reopen his wounds. They were grateful that Heero's injury confined him to his room most of the time, but as time went on, the wound became less restricting.

Once he was able to move around the mansion without becoming exhausted, they began to worry and watch him closer.

Without Relena's knowledge, once he had reached that stage of recovery, he began to work on upgrading the Wing Zero while she was at headquarters.

To the others' surprise, he had completed the work without setting back his recovery time. During that time, they hadn't seen any behaviour that was out of the ordinary for Heero, but they feared it was only a matter of time…

Spring had finally come to the Sanc Kingdom since the time that Heero had been moved into the mansion.

With the upgrades to the Wing Zero finished, the pilots found themselves usually following Heero to the library, although he rarely did anything while there but sit and stare out one of the library's many windows.

* * *

Duo sighed in irritation as he closed the book he was reading. "Damnit… doesn't she have anything interesting in this place?" He asked as he replaced it in the stack.

"I'm surprised to even see you reading, Duo." Trowa said with a smirk.

"Hey! I do read… sometimes…" Duo said evasively.

All the pilots noted that Heero had no smart comments of his own to throw in, and that concerned them greatly.

Quatre sighed as he put away his book and walked over to a far window.

Duo muttered under his breath in irritation as he joined Quatre. "What's up?" He asked quietly.

"Something's really off with Heero today… You gave him an open chance to insult you and yet…"

Duo nodded in concern. "I did that on purpose too… Of course, I didn't expect Trowa to capitalize on it." He admitted with a cringe.

Quatre couldn't help but chuckle in amusement. "I know. That was amusing."

Duo rolled his eyes. "I have a bad feeling… I think if something's going to happen… it'll happen within the next couple of days."

Quatre nodded in agreement. "Although we still say 'if', it appears to have come down to a matter of 'when'…" He shook his head. "It's quite depressing knowing one of your allies is going to betray you…"

"It's really depressing since we have no proof… we can't act on our suspicions… at least since he's been wounded. We could have acted if he was fine. Hell, we could have kicked his ass if we wanted to…"

Quatre nodded reluctantly. "Come on, let's get back."

Duo nodded in agreement and the two made their way back to where the others were. Both men wore different expressions of concern when they returned and only Trowa remained.

"Heero left while you were talking, but don't worry… Wufei followed him."

Quatre sighed as he put a hand to his chest. "I really don't know if my heart can take all this suspicion…"

Trowa glanced at him in concern. "Is your heart all right?"

Quatre chucked as he lowered his hand. "It's fine. I wouldn't have been allowed to be a pilot again if there was any trouble with it physically… emotionally though…" He shrugged uncertainly. "Anyways, I'm getting a bit hungry. Do either of you want to join me for some food?"

Trowa and Duo shook their heads.

"We'll probably stay here for a bit, and then check to see where Wufei and Heero went to." Trowa said.

Duo nodded in agreement as he sat in a chair, picking up one of the abandoned books from the table beside him and flipping through it, though it was obvious to his fellow pilots that he was just doing it to prevent himself from going after Wufei and Heero.

"All right… I'll be back once I've eaten. Heero tends to come back here after wandering anyways." Quatre waved as he left, receiving slight waves in return from his friends.

* * *

Several moments later, Wufei reappeared in the library with an angry expression that made it look as though he wanted to kill somebody.

"Wufei…? What's wrong? Where's Heero?" Trowa asked urgently as he stood warily.

Wufei shook his head as he began to calm down a little in the presence of the other two pilots, however, he still sounded furious when he spoke. "We should have learned more about this mansion… I think there are secret passages. He turned a corner and was gone before I got there. I came back here after searching as much of the house as I could."

Duo dropped the book he was reading as both men stared at him in fear, knowing something that Wufei didn't.

"Quatre went off by himself…" Duo said worriedly as he stood up and reached for his gun.

Trowa nodded and pulled out his gun, checking to make sure it was loaded. "Here." He said as he passed another one to Wufei. "I know you don't like to use them, but we need to be on our guards. I have a feeling that Heero is armed, and we know he has no hesitation about using a gun, even on his allies." Trowa explained sternly, convincing the reluctant Wufei to remove the safety from the gun.

Duo nodded in agreement as he checked to make sure his gun was loaded before removing the safety. "Split up. We'll meet at the kitchens if we don't find anything. That's where Quatre was headed… I just hope he made it there. He'd be safer with the staff. I doubt Heero would do anything if there was a crowd."

"No. Heero isn't the type who would kill a mass of people just for one target. He's more… efficient… than that." Trowa cringed as he spoke those last words.

Wufei's eyes narrowed dangerously at Trowa's grim words, and despite his disliking of guns, he quickly replaced the safety and did a double check to ensure it was ready to fire before removing the safety again.

"Come on, standing around here isn't helping Quatre. We need to find him now." Duo ordered. "Relena will be back soon. You know she doesn't stay at headquarters for long because she's worried about Heero's health. We need to deal with this before she returns."

The other two pilots nodded as the three men bolted from the library, hoping to find Quatre before Heero did…

* * *

Quatre frowned as he walked along the quiet halls on his way towards the kitchen.

For some reason, he never liked walking alone in the mansion, but today he seemed to feel especially troubled. However, he would never resort to walking around with his gun in his hand. He didn't want to be mistaken by any of the staff if they appeared suddenly, which they seemed to do quite often while Relena wasn't there.

He felt that something was wrong, and he knew that he should obey his warning instinct, but he couldn't place what it was that could be troubling him since Heero was under surveillance and there were no other immediate threats, at least to his knowledge there weren't… at least until he turned the last corner before the kitchens. He froze as he saw Heero standing there as though he was waiting for something.

"H-Heero…what brings you around here?" He asked as he tried to remain calm while his eyes looked around warily for Wufei.

"Don't bother looking for him… I lost him." Heero said coolly.

"Ah… we had a feeling you knew about it…" Quatre said weakly as shame began to override his wariness.

As subtly as he could, his hand slipped down to where his gun was hidden as a precaution, however he was quickly forced to school his expression as a wave of fear washed over him: he had left his gun in his bedroom that morning because he had thought it wouldn't be necessary. And he knew from experience that Heero was better than him in hand-to-hand combat.

"I knew Relena wanted you guys to watch me… but I have a feeling there's something more behind it." Heero said as his tone began to slowly go from cool to icy.

"It's nothing… honestly… you've just been acting a bit different than usual and it has us worried…" Quatre said as he got himself under control, but he was still quite wary of being alone with Heero, especially upon realizing that he was unarmed.

He quickly got his guard up as Heero approached while his mind raced to find a strategy that wouldn't result in a death.

"You're worried about me betraying you, aren't you?"

Quatre blinked in surprise as Heero seemed to be planning on walking past him. "H-how did…?"

"It's simple… because I am." Heero said as his tone turned icy as he stood beside Quatre.

Quatre paled. "Heero… please rethink this… You're still too wounded to make it out of here alive… the others will already be coming this way…"

"I know…"

"Then, why…?"

"I'm sorry…"

Quatre was surprised to hear sadness in Heero's tone before suddenly, the world went dark.

Heero caught Quatre as he began to collapse from the blow Heero had just delivered and set him down on the floor as gently as he could just as running footsteps could be heard echoing down the hallway.

* * *

Duo cursed as he slipped on the recently polished floor, grabbing the corner of the wall to stop himself. He held his gun out as he looked around cautiously. He cursed again as he noticed Quatre lying on the floor, but nobody else was in sight.

"Quatre!" He called out to him as he ran towards his unconscious friend, all the while keeping a wary eye out in case Heero decided to take him out as well. He was surprised when he examined Quatre to find that he was still alive and pretty much unharmed, aside from his unconscious state.

Trowa and Wufei quickly appeared as he knelt with Quatre.

"Is he…?" Trowa asked worriedly.

"He's alive… and aside from being knocked out… he seems perfectly fine…" Duo said in confusion.

Trowa stared at Duo in surprise as Wufei examined the wall closely.

"Damn… I knew it…" He growled as he traced his finger along a part of the wall. "There are secret passages in this mansion… I wish we'd been made aware of that before!" He roared in anger as he punched the wall, opening the passageway.

"There's no time to let anger get the better of us, Wufei." Trowa said coolly. "We have to take care of Quatre… then we'll deal with Heero's betrayal."

Duo and Wufei nodded grimly as Wufei shut up the passageway again.

Duo carefully picked up Quatre, making sure that he didn't move too much in case he was hurt worse than what they could see.

"So where to…?" He asked uncertainly.

"My room is the closest… come on." Trowa said calmly as he began to walk away.

Duo followed immediately, but Wufei took another frustrated glance at the passageway entrance before reluctantly deciding to follow the other pilots, knowing that going into the passages alone would almost certainly result in an ambush.

Once they were sure Quatre was safely secured in Trowa's room, they began to decipher what Heero's next move would be.

"If I'd revealed my true colours… I wouldn't stick around to be caught…" Wufei said icily as they ran down a hallway.

"Damn! The upgraded Wing Zero!" Duo said as they sped up and began to head for the hangar.

Wufei went to pass Trowa back the gun, but Trowa shook his head and motioned for him to hold on to it.

"Keep it… I have a feeling we'll need to use them…"

Wufei frowned in irritation, but kept the gun.

"We'd just better hope Relena doesn't show up… she's the last person we need to deal with right now." Trowa said grimly.

They had to run past the entrance hall in order to reach the hangar, and unfortunately for them, Relena had returned home.

"Aw crap… we've been caught…" Duo said as he slowed down to cut off Relena, who quickly ran to catch up to them.

"What's wrong?" She asked worriedly.

"We'd hoped to have this dealt with before you returned home, but…" He sighed as Trowa and Wufei sped up in order to try and cut off Heero's flight. "Heero's a traitor…"

Relena paled and stumbled, but Duo caught her and she continued to run alongside him.

"He knocked Quatre unconscious… which, admittedly, has us confused… and he fled. We're afraid he's going to steal the Wing Zero and flee."

"He… he…" Relena seemed at a loss for words.

Duo put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll stop him and find out what the hell's going on…" He said as he tried to sound reassuring.

Relena suddenly got on her phone and called Milliardo. "Milliardo, I don't have all the details right now, but I need you to bring the Tallgeese III and stop the Wing Zero from leaving. Duo claims that Heero's betrayed us…" She frowned. "What do you mean 'you knew it'?" She listened in silence to his answer before sighing. "I really wish I had your soldier's instincts at times… All right, thank you." She said before hanging up. "Come on… we mustn't let him leave…" Her sudden determination surprised Duo, but he nodded as they sped up and hoped they wouldn't be too late…

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Crap. It's been two months? I'm so sorry. Writer's Block hit me like a tonne of bricks and it was so bad that I couldn't even bring myself to open Word to upload Gundam. Please remember to keep an eye on my profile if something like this happens again, I'll make sure to post something there. As penance for this lapse, expect another chapter to be posted tomorrow or Friday. Yes, two chapters in one week. I hope this makes up for my two month absence, and I hope to finally get back into a weekly schedule.

Anyways, about this chapter. Yes, it's a bit short, sorry. There was a period of time where I slipped back into the Three Pages of Word format. This gets rectified later, I think. I don't know. It's been a while. Yep. Heero's a traitorous bastard. As if you didn't see that coming. =P Enjoy the chapter!


	6. Flight

Chapter 6: Flight

By the time Duo and Relena made it to the hangar, Heero was standing on the Wing Zero, frozen by the guns aimed at him by Wufei and Trowa.

Duo aimed his gun at Heero with a rarely seen icy glare to match.

"Heero, why are you doing this?" Relena asked worriedly as she looked at the three cold pilots, all of whom looked ready to fire on their former comrade if he moved the wrong way.

Heero remained silent as he stared down at them.

She quickly realized he had a hand on his chest as though the strain from running to the hangar had gotten to him. She wanted to ask the others to lower their guns, but she knew those guns were the only reason he hadn't hopped into the Wing Zero and fled already.

"Tch… damnit man… get down here and explain yourself! We don't want to have to shoot you!" Duo yelled angrily as he lowered his gun slightly.

Trowa and Wufei kept their silence as they kept their guns trained on Heero.

After a few moments of an apparent stalemate, Heero suddenly moved, opening the Wing Zero's pilot hatch.

Relena was surprised when Duo was the first to start shooting, but the other two quickly joined in. She was forced to cover her ears as the three guns in the open space echoed loudly, especially with how close she was to them.

However, the hatch acted like a shield and none of the shots could hit Heero as he slid into the cockpit.

As the Wing Zero activated, Wufei threw his gun at it in frustration before he made to run for the Altron. The gun shattered on the powerful metal as Trowa grabbed Wufei's shoulder.

"Forget it… the Wing Zero's lighter now… it'd be next to impossible to catch it once it's taken off… We've lost him…" He said grimly as the Wing Zero transformed into its Neo-Bird Mode and launched from the hangar.

Waiting outside the hangar was the Tallgeese III with its heat rod ready. It lashed out at the Wing Zero, which easily dodged the attack and flew past the Tallgeese III like a white blur. Even the Tallgeese III's long range weapons missed as the Wing Zero quickly faded out of sight.

Relena wanted to cry as the Tallgeese III landed in the hangar, after trying and failing to give chase to the Wing Zero. Instead, she unintentionally turned it into anger, which she directed at the other pilots.

"Did you know he was going to do this?" Her voice trembled as she snapped at them.

Duo, Trowa and Wufei glanced at each other grimly before Duo was forced to answer her.

"Sort of… Rashid warned us to watch out for Heero, but he didn't say anything else. We decided to handle it ourselves until we had solid proof… of course, we didn't expect him to have enough energy to pull this stunt on us. We're sorry, we should have warned you at least…" He looked away from her as she stared angrily at him.

Trowa and Wufei closed their eyes as her angry gaze turned towards them.

Milliardo was surprisingly calm as he walked up to them. "I'm sorry too, Relena… I should have acted on my instincts… I felt that he was acting strangely and should have done more to find out why."

Relena found herself sorely tempted to slap all four men for keeping their suspicions from her, but decided to change her focus and it helped her calm down. "Don't worry… there's nothing we could have done… just go and call Dr. Erickson and ask him to look at Quatre to make sure he's all right…" Her voice still trembled, but the others were relieved to hear the anger was gone from her tone.

Trowa, Wufei and Milliardo left the hangar as Duo wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry we couldn't stop him…" He said quietly as she hugged him, burying her face in his chest and allowed the tears to come.

As he returned her hug, he was grateful that she couldn't see the anger on his face as he looked at the open hangar doorway.

_Damnit Heero… you made Relena cry… I don't care what your reason for doing this is anymore… I'm going to kick your ass the next time I see you… You should know better than to make our best friend cry, you rotten son of a bitch…_

After a few moments, he sighed as he petted her hair. "Come on, we'd better go make sure Quatre's all right…"

Relena nodded as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Thank you, Duo…"

"Hey, don't worry about it… I've learned to let a lady cry when she needs to. You definitely looked like you needed to…"

Relena couldn't help but laugh at him. "I'll have to thank Hilde for training you well."

"Hey! I'm not a dog!" Duo said as he kept an arm around her shoulder, steering her out of the hangar as the hangar door's automatic system kicked in and began to close.

* * *

Dr. Erickson sighed as he came out of Trowa's room. "He'll be fine… I do find it strange though…" He said as he glanced back at the door.

"What?" Relena asked in concern.

"I determined where he was hit from the bruising that's started to form… and with enough force… he could have easily been killed."

The others wore grim expression as they realized how close they had come to losing a comrade, made all the more grim when they would have lost their comrade to a former comrade.

Duo held on to Relena just in case her legs' strength decided to give out.

"However, it's like Mr. Yuy purposely held back. I've heard how good he is at hand-to-hand combat, and it seems like he could have easily killed Mr. Winner without even trying. It would have taken a lot of effort to hold himself back enough so that he only stunned Mr. Winner." Dr. Erickson said in confusion.

The pilots stared at each other in confusion as they began to wonder what was going on.

"When will he wake up?" Relena asked.

"It should be in a few minutes… however, he will be a bit disoriented for a while. I don't know if there will be any long term side effects, but you can expect him to have some dizzy spells for at least a month or so. Despite holding back, Mr. Yuy did hit him quite hard. You may want to keep him from doing any piloting for the time being, just in case a dizzy spell hits him while he's fighting."

Milliardo nodded. "Thank you, doctor."

"Humph. Maybe I should be hired full time just for these five. They seem to be turning into regular patients of mine." He said as he looked at the remaining three pilots, who shifted uncomfortably with that thought.

Relena allowed herself a relieved laugh. "I'll consider it, doctor. Thank you very much."

Dr. Erickson nodded. "Call me if anything happens."

They nodded as Alexander escorted him away from the group.

"We should be there for him when he wakes up." Relena said as she went into Trowa's room.

The others nodded and followed, glancing warily around just in case there were unpleasant surprises waiting for them.

* * *

Heero winced in pain as he walked into a space port hangar in a neighbouring region. He hadn't realized how much he had pushed himself during his escape from the mansion until he had time to reflect on it. He was surrounded by bodies of the space port's employees, but he ignored them as he stared icily at the six teens that stood waiting near a mobile suit space transport.

"It's about time you showed." Caden said with a tone to match Heero's gaze as the Wing Zero was loaded onto the transport by an automatic loading system. "I must admit, I'm amazed that the great and loyal Heero Yuy actually had the gall to betray his comrades."

"Back down Caden… we don't know his reasons, so he could just as easily stab us in the back and report our whole plan to the ESUN. We'd be screwed if that were to happen. The only reason Heero is here is because He must be holding something over Heero's head… if He is, then that's not exactly a guaranteed loyalty chip if you ask me…" Andrew warned.

Caden rolled his eyes. "You could say the same for all of us, though. Our reasons could be considered just as untrustworthy as his is. The only reason I'm here is because I want to see that bitch suffer for humiliating us like she did." He growled.

Andrew sighed and shrugged as they followed Heero into the transport, knowing his reason was similar to Caden's.

"Yamato, let's go." Caden said as Yamato nodded and headed for the cockpit with Quinn.

Once the shuttle was airborne, Heero closed his eyes and fell asleep as the strain of the intense physical exertion he had just pulled off finally caught up to him.

Andrew glanced over at him worriedly. "Kareem, did you have to shoot him where you did?" He asked his fellow former candidate.

Kareem shrugged. "I had to make it look like a real assassin job, didn't I? It was hard enough to hit him there without killing him. It's his fault for not taking better care of himself during his recovery period."

"I must admit amazement at him. He actually survived being shot near the heart. Even if it was an intended miss, any shot near the heart should pretty much be fatal, especially since the wound was allowed to bleed for as long as it did." Marco said warily as he watched Heero sleep.

The others nodded warily in agreement. Heero was definitely not a man they wanted to get on the bad side of, it seemed.

Caden decided to keep his silence as the shuttle began to break through the atmosphere. Personally, he didn't see what was so great about the so-called legendary Gundam pilot…

* * *

When Quatre awoke, he sat up suddenly as memories of what happened came back to him.

Relena and Trowa quickly tried to stop him from sitting up as a dizzy spell washed over him.

He held his head as he tried to get the world to straighten out. "What happened?" He asked once it did.

"He's gone." Duo answered grimly.

"Damn…" Quatre muttered in disappointment.

"Did he say anything to you?" Milliardo asked.

"Milliardo, I don't think this is…" Relena trailed off as Quatre raised a hand to silence her.

"Don't worry about it. I'm fine now." He lied as the world decided to spin again. He closed his eyes for a moment until he felt better. "I don't really remember what he said; all I do remember is that he was standing there when I arrived at the kitchens. I remember realizing I was unarmed… he began to walk past me… then everything else is a blank." Quatre lied as his mind tried to process Heero's strange behaviour, and his strange apology. He felt it wasn't wise to tell Milliardo and Relena about Heero's unusual words for the moment as it would probably only serve to make the situation worse.

Milliardo sighed in frustration. "Noin's looking in to any unusual activity around the area as we speak… I just hope she finds something."

"Unfortunately, I did." Noin said as she stood behind them. She raised her hands as she was suddenly faced with guns aimed at her. "I'm sorry; I know I should have knocked. It's becoming a horrible habit of mine." She said as the guns lowered.

"What'd you find?" Trowa asked in concern.

"A slaughter…" She said grimly.

They frowned.

"What do you mean?" Wufei asked tensely.

"A space port in a southern region is now basically a graveyard. Every single employee is reported to be dead. It wasn't Heero though." She added as she took note of their reactions. "Preliminary reports say they were dead long before Heero would have arrived. Unfortunately, that means he isn't acting alone. A mobile suit transport that was contained there has been reported missing. Our crews in space located it just before I came here, unfortunately…"

"It was empty." Trowa finished her sentence flatly.

Noin nodded.

"Well whoever they are, they know how to cover their tracks…" Quatre said with a shake of his head, which he instantly regretted as he became dizzy again.

"Heero mentioned to me that space may have been the source of those rumours you warned us about… I wonder now if that was a hint about what was going to happen." Noin muttered thoughtfully.

"Unfortunately, without any leads… we're at an impasse. We can't do anything except wait and see what happens next…" Milliardo growled in frustration. "Take care of yourself Quatre; I have a feeling that we're going to need you on that battlefield…"

Quatre nodded as Milliardo motioned for the others to follow him.

Relena hugged Quatre gratefully. "I'm glad you're all right…"

"I'm just sorry that I couldn't stop him…" He said as he returned her hug.

She shook her head as she pulled away. "It's fine. Just take care of yourself, don't let anything else get to you. I have a feeling I'll need your help for more than just fighting." She said before she left, leaving Quatre to stare at the door in confusion.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Tadaa! Just like I promised, a second chapter in one week! I hope this redeems me a bit in my readers' eyes. And just like I said in Winged Destiny, the replacement pilots make a return. Huzzah!

Here's a rundown of where the replacement pilots came from. Sorry I didn't put it in Winged Destiny, but they're more important in this story than they are in the prequel:  
Caden - European Pilot, Britain specifically.  
Andrew - North American Pilot, USA specifically.  
Yamato - Asian Pilot, Japan specifically.  
Kareem - African Pilot.  
Marco - South American Pilot.  
Quinn - Australian Pilot, Australia specifically.  
Michael - Colony Cluster L1.  
Steven - Colony Cluster L2.  
Vincent - Colony Cluster L3.


	7. Dark Business

Chapter 7: Dark Business

Heero walked down the halls of an office building, ignoring employees who tried to stop him.

The elevator was empty, even though on every floor there were usually people waiting to use it. One look at the occupant of the elevator quickly made them change their minds and wait for the second and third elevators to arrive, no matter how packed they may be.

When he reached a secretary who sat before a large set of doors on the top floor, she winced in fear before motioning for him to go ahead.

He ignored her as he walked in and stared icily at the light-haired man sitting behind a desk.

The man seemed un-phased by Heero's glare as he smiled at him, motioning for Heero to approach the desk. "I must admit, Mr. Yuy… you had me a bit worried for a while there."

Heero kept his silence as the man chuckled.

"Now, now… you shouldn't look so sullen. I have kept my end of the bargain so far. Just be warned, Mr. Yuy: you had better remember your place, or else…" The man's tone went from cheery to icy almost instantly as he hinted at an unspoken threat known only to the two men.

Heero reluctantly nodded, but remained silent.

"Good. Now please… go and rest up. You'll be quite busy over the next few days and I will need you in top form." His tone returned to a friendlier one as he spoke, but his green eyes still reflected the icy nature of the man.

Heero's eyes narrowed, but he simply nodded and walked out of the room.

The man smirked in amusement as Heero left. "Humph… it looks like the loyal wolf really does have his weaknesses…" He muttered icily.

The secretary shied away from Heero as he stood by her desk with a scowl of frustration.

Suddenly, his fist went through the glass top of her desk, destroying it and all of the equipment that had sat on top of it as all of it crashed onto the floor.

She stared at it in shock as he walked away, ignoring the blood flowing from his hand.

The man came out upon hearing the loud noise and chuckled as the secretary looked at him in fear. "Don't worry about him… he's more or less a wolf who has lost his fangs. He's harmless now. I'll personally pay to replace the desk and all of the equipment; does that sound good to you?"

The secretary could only nod absently to his question as she watched Heero's retreating back warily, wondering why her employer would need such a terrifying man in his employ.

* * *

Relena sighed in exhaustion as she walked out of a meeting that had just finished.

Noin was immediately by her side with a look of concern. "You've been going non-stop since the Wing Zero was stolen two days ago… You need to rest. You don't have any more meetings for at least two hours, so please go and get some rest."

They had explained the sudden activity of the Wing Zero and the deaths at the space port as a well executed plan to steal the Wing Zero, and since there was no way any of the other politicians could disprove it, the story stuck.

"Remember: you have to deal with Heiran Yaturi tomorrow."

Relena moaned in exasperation at the name. "Do I have to?"

Noin nodded as she fought to keep her amusement from showing. "He wants to expand his company's operations to include the Earth. He needs your approval before that is possible. You know that was part of the agreement between the Earth and the colonies when the ESUN was reshuffled after the Eve Wars." Noin explained sternly.

"I know, but that man is intolerable. He seems to take every opportunity to try and convince me to marry him, and he's ten years my senior!" Relena felt terrible as she remembered the other times she had met with the man.

Noin patted Relena's shoulder with a shake of her head. "I know he does… but you have to just simply hold your position on that matter, quickly deal with his business, and then kick him back to the colonies."

"I know…" Relena's tone was exasperated before she noticed a red-headed teenage girl standing in front of her office. "Mariemaia!" Relena smiled happily as Mariemaia waved at her. She was grateful to have some sort of a distraction, no matter how short it would be.

Noin shrugged in defeat. "All right, I guess that means a rest won't be happening… but you'd better be prepared to deal with him. He's coming tomorrow." She whispered to Relena before walking away.

Relena sighed in annoyance at the Colonel before she quickly replaced her annoyance with a pleased smile for the young girl who had once been considered an enemy to the people of the Earth Sphere.

* * *

Mariemaia folded her hands in the lap of her school uniform as she sat and waited for Relena to sit across from her.

"So what brings you here so quickly after school?" Relena asked in curiosity.

"Considering I live with the General of your Defence Council, it's hard not to hear things." Mariemaia said seriously. "I know things have been going from bad to worse extremely quickly. I know Heero Yuy is alive and well _and_ that he betrayed you _and_ stole the Wing Zero."

Relena stared in shock at Mariemaia. "How did…?"

Mariemaia shrugged. "I have my ways." She said evasively, ignoring Relena's stern frown. "The point is: you told me before that I could help you the next time things get bad. They have… in fact; they're downright horrible right now. I want to help you. I already know what's happening, so you can't use that excuse again. Please let me help you." She pleaded.

Relena sighed reluctantly as she stared into the young girl's pleading eyes. "Things could get very dangerous, very fast. I don't want to risk losing you if something like that were to happen."

"So it's all right for the rest of you to sacrifice yourselves, but it's not all right for me to?" Mariemaia snapped sternly as she stood up to give her a slight height advantage over Relena. "You've been hanging around those five for too long. You've picked up on their bad habits. I'm perfectly capable of handling myself, or did you forget about the assault at the end of the Eve Wars?"

Relena balked in surprise at Mariemaia's strong attitude.

"I'm not a child anymore, Relena. I'm the same age you were when you had to deal with everything that you were forced to deal with during the Eve Wars. Please allow me to take some of the burden off your shoulders. I'll be fine." Mariemaia's tone was softer as she looked on the verge of tears.

Relena couldn't help but smile sadly at the young girl. "All right… you win. You can have the empty office next to mine."

Mariemaia let out a triumphant cheer.

"However!" Relena's sharp tone cut off Mariemaia's celebration as she quickly sat back in her chair with her hands back on her lap as she stared at the older woman intently. "You will go to school, you will do your homework and you will do only what I give you to do. Please don't do anything behind my back."

Mariemaia laughed and nodded. "I promise, Relena. I'll do everything you ask of me and nothing else."

"You'd better not." Relena feigned a stern tone before laughing along with the young girl.

Mariemaia came around the desk and hugged Relena. "I won't let you down. You've become like a big sister to me these past few years and I'm grateful to have met you…"

Relena laughed as she returned Mariemaia's hug. "I feel the same way about you. I must thank you in advanced for your help… things have just been so crazy lately."

"It's no big deal. I can get started right away if you want me to."

Relena shook her head as she pushed the younger girl away. "Wait until tomorrow. That way I can give you all the details on what's happening."

Mariemaia nodded in reluctant agreement before Relena sent her away so she could try and get some rest before the next day.

* * *

The next day came, much to her annoyance, as Relena sighed in irritation when she walked towards the conference room and she was suddenly surrounded by the pilots. "Let me guess: Noin?" She asked as they walked around her like an escort.

"Yeah… our job is to keep you from killing Heiran Yaturi. She says it wouldn't look good if you did. We're not even allowed to bring guns in order to prevent you from trying to take them and shoot him." Duo said wryly.

Relena rolled her eyes, but she couldn't hide the amusement she felt from the way he spoke.

"Don't worry Relena. I've been forced to deal with him a few times myself. I know how unpleasant he is." Quatre said calmly as they entered the conference room, which was empty.

"Why am I not surprised by this?" Relena asked to nobody in particular. "Does he do this to you too?" She asked Quatre, who could only shake his head in annoyed agreement. "Ugh. I wish he would be on time so we can get these unpleasant meetings done and over with as quickly as possible."

"Ouch, I never knew you felt that way about our meetings, Miss Relena. I always found them to be quite pleasant. Although I will admit… that last one was a bit terrifying…" A light-haired man stood in the doorway of the conference room.

"Mr. Yaturi, it's good of you to show up earlier than you usually do." Relena said stiffly.

Heiran chuckled in amusement before noticing the other people in the room. "Oh? I see you have guards this time. I had a feeling you would. The last meeting did kind of get out of hand…" He said with a cringe.

Relena stared at him coldly as she remembered their last meeting.

He had become annoyingly insistent with his proposal and she had hit him before having him removed from the building, an act that she still sort of regretted because it went against her principles.

"Of course, I hope you don't mind that I brought my own guard. After that last meeting, I had a feeling I should bring a guard for myself. I only brought one because I felt it would be rude to bring any more than that. Do you mind if I bring him in?"

Relena shook her head. She would give anything to have this meeting done with as fast as possible.

Heiran smirked in satisfaction at their reactions as Heero came in.

Duo and Wufei jumped from their seats and made to attack him, only to be blocked by Relena's outstretched arms. She was pale with shock, but she knew Heero was still wounded and attacking him would be a bad move on the part of the other pilots.

Trowa's eyes narrowed icily as he watched Heero sit as far from them as possible, ignoring his former comrades' reactions.

Quatre could only shake his head in disappointment. He hadn't been able to tell the others what Heero had said because they had been kept busy dealing with the after-effects that the theft of the Wing Zero had caused.

"I must admit, I was amazed to see him alive after all the evidence that suggested he was dead." Heiran feigned an aloof attitude as he sat at the conference table.

"We had our reasons." Relena said coolly as she sat across from him.

Heiran shrugged casually. "That's understandable… and I believe Mr. Yuy has his reasons for becoming my guard, although he wouldn't tell me what they were." He said as he glanced at Heero, who closed his eyes and looked away from Heiran. "However, before you jump to conclusions, I assure you that he came to me of his own free will. I never had any interest in acquiring his skills… in fact, so far as I can tell, all of the skills Mr. Yuy possesses are of no use to me." He said dismissively, ignoring the disbelieving glares the other pilots were giving him.

Relena was sorely tempted to ask him what he was holding over Heero's head, but she knew he would never tell her.

"Anyways, shall we get down to business? I fear I have other business to attend to here in the Sanc Kingdom, so I will be sticking around for a while."

Relena made an irritated noise in her throat at the thought of him being around for more than a few hours, but kept her irritation mostly in check. "All right, let's get this over with…" She said stiffly as he brought out a folder and they began to talk about business.

* * *

Trowa couldn't help but smirk when the meeting was over and they were walking away from Relena's office.

"What are you smiling about? That meeting was a disaster from the moment Yaturi walked into it." Duo grumbled as he noticed Trowa's smirk.

"Oh, so you didn't notice?" Trowa asked with a bit of slyness in his tone.

"Notice what?" Wufei snapped.

"Yaturi lied… a lot." Trowa said simply.

The others stopped walking and stared at him in confusion.

Quatre frowned. "I know he's a rotten man, but how did you know he was lying? I couldn't even tell when he was lying and when he was speaking the truth."

"Honestly? I didn't… however there was somebody else who did…" Trowa said with the same sly tone.

"Damnit quit teasing us and tell us what you're talking about!" Wufei growled while making a gesture that looked as though he was going to attack his fellow pilot in frustration.

"I must admit, Trowa, you're acting strangely out of character by teasing us like this." Quatre said warily.

"I'm sorry, I guess I'm just amused and relieved by these sudden turn of events…" Trowa said as he stopped smiling.

"So hurry up and tell us!" Duo hissed as he looked around warily, just in case Heiran appeared.

"Heero isn't a traitor." Trowa explained simply, causing the others to stare at him as though he had lost his mind. "It was subtle, but I first noticed it when Yaturi said that Heero had joined Yaturi of his own free will. He made a strange motion with his hand. At first, I thought it was nothing, but then I saw the same motion repeatedly throughout the meeting. He did it quite often too."

"Do you mean to tell us that Heero was trying to warn us of when that bastard was lying?" Duo asked in disbelief.

Trowa nodded. "Yes, he was. I don't know what Heiran is holding over Heero's head, but it must have been extreme in order to force Heero to act like he betrayed us."

Wufei frowned in annoyance. "Humph… there isn't anything I know of that could be used to force Heero to do anything. The man has no reasons that I am aware of." He snapped.

Quatre and Duo paled.

"Yes… there is…" Quatre said weakly.

Wufei looked at the two questioningly.

"Relena…" Duo added as anger flashed in his eyes.

"I had a feeling Heero wasn't doing this willingly… I kept this from Milliardo, but Heero blatantly admitted to me that he was betraying us, and then he apologized before I fell unconscious." Quatre admitted.

"He apologised?" Duo asked in disbelief.

"That doesn't matter anymore, what matters now is that we have to keep this secret. I have a feeling both his life and Relena's may be at stake if Yaturi learns of what Heero did." Trowa said urgently.

The others nodded in agreement as they resumed walking, trying to act normally as the thoughts of what they had just learned weighed heavily on their minds.

* * *

The pilots passed a few offices before freezing as an office door opened and Heiran and Heero stepped out of it.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said as he noticed their reactions to his sudden appearance. "I was just speaking with the financier for the ESUN. I wanted to see if it was feasible to pick up some contracts with them… Unfortunately…"

This time, all of the pilots took notice of a strange twitch Heero's hand seemed to have developed.

Heiran blinked in fake surprise as he noticed Quatre. "Oh yes, I had forgotten you were a Gundam pilot as well as the head of the Winner Corporation, Mr. Winner. Your company has sole ownership of any contracts the ESUN makes for construction and mining in space, doesn't it?"

Quatre nodded curtly, although he looked as though he had swallowed something unpleasant.

"It must be quite advantageous to have a friend in such a high place of power, isn't it?" Heiran asked coolly.

"I did not capitalize on my friendship with Relena Peacecraft, if that is what you're implying, Mr. Yaturi. It just happened to end up that way well before your corporation ever came into being." Quatre responded with the same cool tone.

Heiran and Quatre seemed to be locked in a frigid stare down before Heiran chuckled.

"I'm sorry about that. My overly competitive business sense got in the way. I know your company would never do something so low. Please forgive me."

Quatre noticed Heero's hand twitch from the corner of his eye as he kept his eyes locked with Heiran's. "I understand. It gets quite rough out there. We've all had to develop some form of a business sense in order to survive."

Heiran nodded in agreement and was about to speak before Quatre was suddenly forced to grab his head.

"I'm sorry, but I'm suddenly not feeling in the best condition to keep talking…" He said shakily as Trowa grabbed him just as he began to stumble and Trowa was forced to help lead him away.

Wufei followed in case he needed to help, but Duo stood still for a few moments before lunging at Heero, slamming him hard against the wall.

Heiran stared in surprise at the sudden violent act as Wufei ran back to pull Duo off of him.

"Thanks a lot, jackass." Duo snarled at Heero.

Heero glared icily in return. Unnoticed by Heiran, a hint of a smirk appeared on Duo's face.

Heero didn't respond as Wufei pulled Duo after Trowa and Quatre.

"My, my… your friend certainly is violent." Heiran said in surprise.

"He's always been unable to control his emotions." Heero responded icily as he rested a hand on his chest wound.

"Just remember… if you do anything to mess this up… I will personally make sure that it was like Relena Peacecraft never existed." Heiran hissed quietly to Heero before he walked away.

Heero's eyes narrowed as he followed Heiran in silence. He was grateful the others realized what he had been trying to tell them, although he hoped they would find out the full truth before it was too late for Relena, him, and the ESUN…

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Wow! Another chapter! *dies of shock* Yes, you're seeing this right. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Anyways, yep! The man behind it all finally rears his ugly head! What awaits the pilots and Relena in the future? Wait and see for yourself!


	8. Exposure

Chapter 8: Exposure

Quatre was lying in one of the break rooms waiting for the dizzy spell to pass, sighing in relief once it finally did. "This is probably the first time I've been grateful for that." He admitted as he sat up.

"Well, you were right when you called him a 'jackass' before… he certainly seems to be living up to that title." Duo said with a shake of his head.

"Did Heero understand what you meant?" Trowa asked in concern.

Duo nodded. "He wasn't able to respond, but I saw it in his eyes. He knows that we know now."

"Did you have to throw him that hard against the wall though? You could have reopened his wound." Quatre said worriedly.

Duo made a dismissive gesture. "I have a feeling he's out of the danger zone for that. He obviously survived exiting and entering the atmosphere, so what I did wouldn't have reopened it. It would take a lot to cause it to reopen now."

"Anyways, what's our next move?" Wufei asked in irritation.

"I'm going to find out why Heero's been forced by Yaturi to work against us like this. You guys should keep an eye on Relena and Yaturi. He kept bringing up marriage and I'm concerned for her safety if ever she was to cave in and accept it." Trowa said calmly.

"So where are you going to start?" Duo asked as he rested his hands behind his head.

"The ESUN database… I'm going to see what I can dredge up about employees of the ESUN. Heero would only bend to an enemy if there was no other way of getting out of a situation. If the ESUN is crawling with Yaturi's operatives, that would explain why Heero is being forced to do whatever Yaturi wants him to do." Trowa explained.

The others nodded in agreement.

"If ever you need any help, just ask us. There are a lot of employees, and having to go through each one's records could take you a long time." Quatre offered as Duo and Wufei grimly agreed with him.

"Thanks… I just hope it doesn't come to that. Dividing our focus by one person is bad enough. If all of us were to focus on hunting down his spies, we could risk something bad happening to Relena. And remember: we're sworn to protect the peace of the Earth Sphere. She's the most important key to keeping that peace alive." Once again, others nodded in agreement. Despite their differences of opinions at times, that one fact was something none of the pilots could argue about.

Quatre sighed as he stood up. "All right, then… let's get to work." He said before leaving the room with the others close behind.

A week had passed and Heiran had left the ESUN in order to attend to the 'other business' he had come to deal with. However, despite his absence in the building, it was rumoured he phoned Relena every day.

The pilots were forced to tap her phone lines in order to keep informed of what was happening.

Trowa sighed as he entered the empty office they had turned into their station.

"How's it going?" Duo whispered in concern.

Relena was on the phone with Heiran, so Quatre was listening intently to their conversation.

Trowa shook his head. "Not well… so far I've checked about one third of the staff here… and there were plenty of lower staff members that have once called Yaturi their employer…"

"I'm afraid to know how many 'plenty' is…" Wufei growled softly.

"I've also had to watch myself. It is an open room and Heero's come in two or three times since I started my investigation."

"Damn… Heero's still here?" Duo asked in surprise.

"Sometimes… it seems like he's acting as Heiran's spy and errand man. He comes and goes with various tasks Yaturi's ordered him to do. Despite Yaturi not being physically in the building, with all of these potential agents…" Trowa trailed off, knowing one of the others would take up where he left off.

"Heero can't backstab him while still pretending that he's loyal to him." Wufei finished flatly.

Trowa nodded but then frowned thoughtfully, causing the others to look at him in concern. "However, for the past two days, I have been finding an unusually high amount of former employees…"

"What do you mean?" Wufei asked as Trowa finally sat down.

"I have a feeling I have some help."

Duo muttered curses under his breath. "If Heero's feeding you information on the side… that's insanely risky, even for him." He said warily.

"Unless whatever Yaturi is planning is coming close to completion and Heero wants us to hurry up and stop him before it is too late." Quatre said in concern as he removed the head phones he had been wearing, indicating that Relena's conversation with Heiran was finished.

"What do you mean?" Trowa asked worriedly.

"Relena's resolve is wavering… a lot. She's still refusing his proposals, but she hesitated for quite some time before she refused the last one he made." Quatre said grimly.

"That means we may not be able to find all of Heiran's agents before it's too late." Trowa growled in frustration.

"It gets worse. He'll be back at headquarters in an hour, and he wants one final meeting with Relena to tie up some loose ends." Quatre warned.

"If she's wavering over the phone, she'll crack in person… especially since we know that Heiran will bring Heero with him to the meeting…" Wufei growled angrily.

"We'll help you hunt, Trowa." Duo volunteered, receiving a nod of agreement from Wufei.

"Quatre, can you go to the meeting with Relena? We need somebody there to help keep her from accepting his proposal. You have the most experience with the man; you probably know what he's like when he gets desperate. Do whatever you have to in order to prevent him from painting Relena into a corner."

Quatre was surprised by Duo's sudden show of leadership, but nodded in agreement.

"We'd better get going if we want to stop him before he leaves for the colonies."

The others nodded and secured the room before Quatre went to Relena's office while the others went to the room Trowa was using to hunt down Heiran's agents.

Relena was surprised when Quatre asked if he could be present for her meeting with Heiran. Although she wondered how he knew about it, she had a feeling the four pilots had acted recklessly and had tapped her lines or some other illegal activity to listen in to her conversations. She was grateful for their watchfulness over her, but sometimes she wished they would let her handle her own affairs by herself.

However, as Heiran and Heero entered her office, she found herself feeling grateful for Quatre's company. Heiran was an intimidating man by himself, but with a man she had considered an extremely close friend by his side, she realized she would have caved to anything he wanted of her.

Heiran blinked in surprise as he noticed Quatre, although a flicker of a frown was noted by the experienced pilot. "Mr. Winner, I must say I'm surprised to see you here."

"I'm here as an advisor and guard for Relena." Quatre answered coolly as Heiran sat across from Relena and Heero sat against a nearby wall.

Quatre took a seat beside Relena, noting Heiran's irritated expression as he did so.

"I must admit, I'm fairly certain that Miss Relena is intelligent enough to make her own decisions without needing an advisor to help her, however I do understand the need for a guard. I confess that our encounters have been less than friendly these past few times. At least it's you, and not some of your more… aggressive colleagues." Heiran said with a distasteful look on his face.

"Believe me; I can be just as… aggressive… as my colleagues if I'm pushed." Quatre said with a pleasant tone, but Heiran's frown indicated that he heard the warning that Quatre was sending him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Quatre realized Heero was trying to hide a smirk of amusement. He was glad to know that Heero hadn't been completely broken by the situation he had found himself in.

Relena was trying hard to ignore Quatre's veiled threats, although she was amazed at how much Quatre seemed to have changed since he became the head of the Winner Corporation. Ever since his father and older sister had died, he had shown hints of a darker personality that seemed to have developed from the emotional trauma, and it seems that it hadn't gone away even after all these years, which troubled Relena. However, she had enough problems sitting in front of her in the form of Heiran Yaturi and Heero Yuy without adding concerns about Quatre to them.

Heiran leaned forward, resting his hands on the desk as he slipped some papers towards Relena that would require her signature and her last meeting with the hateful man, for the time being at least, began…

Trowa frowned as he activated the computer he had been using. "There's something in the drive…" He said warily as the computer alerted him to it. He pulled out a disc and stared at it cautiously as Duo and Wufei joined him.

"What do you think it is?" Duo asked warily.

"There's only one way to find out…"

Trowa nodded in agreement with Wufei before replacing the disc in the drive. His eyes widened as a list of names suddenly sprung up and began automatically scrolling through it.

"These names…" Trowa frowned as he scanned them as quickly as the list scrolled past. "Most of them are former employees of Heiran Yaturi… but some of these people, I've already checked and they weren't…" He trailed off as he realized it. "They may not be former employees, but they may be on his payroll…" He said weakly as Duo and Wufei stared over his shoulders at the list.

"That's a lot of people…" Duo's voice was barely audible as they watched the list scroll down the names.

"Heero's taking a massive risk giving us this information…" Wufei said warily. "We're talking about the same man, aren't we? He's the master of taking massive risks. Of course, he's also a master hacker. Heiran probably doesn't even know Heero was stabbing him in the back in such a subtle manner. He probably still thinks that he's got Heero acting like an obedient little puppy. He obviously doesn't realize he's dealing with the most dangerous pilot. He chose the wrong wolf to leash." Duo said with a slight grin of grim amusement as he leaned on Trowa's shoulder.

"There are a few high ranking officials on this list too… thankfully, I don't see Pagan's grandson on the list. He's clean." Trowa said as the list stopped and he absently shrugged Duo's hand away.

"That's good. It'd be an insult to his grandfather's memory if he was stabbing Relena in the back." Duo said in relief as Trowa pulled out the disc.

"We'd better get this to Milliardo immediately. We've got a lot of work to do and, if Yaturi has his way, not much time to do it in."

Duo and Wufei nodded in agreement as Trowa destroyed all the evidence of his activities, aside from the information on the disc.

"Let's just hope that Quatre's involvement slows Yaturi down…" Duo said grimly as they left the room.

Quatre was worried about how quickly the meeting seemed to be going. Fortunately everything was legal and legitimate… so far. However, it was what he knew was going to happen after the meeting had officially ended that had him truly concerned, and Heero's guarded expression confirmed his suspicions as Heiran sighed and eyed Relena cautiously for a few moments.

"I will be leaving in about an hour's time, but I felt the need to ask you one last time: will you please marry me? I've given you all of the reasons why it is a good idea, so why do you keep rejecting it?"

Relena sighed in frustration as Heiran pleaded with her. "I have already given you all of the reasons why it isn't possible for me to marry you. I wish you would respect my wishes and leave me alone." She said coolly.

"I understand your reasons, but I'm trying to look out for your best interests. Many of the politicians I've had dealings with while I've been here have expressed concern that you're unmarried at your age… especially considering how close you seem to your associates…" He said flatly as his eyes flickered to Quatre.

Quatre frowned as he realized what Heiran was hinting at.

"I don't care what they say, and I don't like what you're implying about my relationship with my pilots either." Relena snapped at him.

"My apologies… it isn't me personally who is speaking ill of you or the pilots. In fact, I highly respect all of you. It's the politicians beneath you who are concerned. They claimed that there are several instances where you have put the ESUN at risk because of your unnaturally unwavering loyalty to them." Heiran said casually.

"And why would you care what they think?"

"I care for your well being. The only reason the other politicians don't act against you is because the people of the Earth Sphere would react and we would face a repeat of the Eve Wars."

Relena sighed in defeat, knowing he spoke the truth.

"Miss Relena… please…" He said softly as he reached over the table and rested a hand on hers.

Quatre felt anger rise up within, and quickly realized he wasn't the only one as he saw it flash in Heero's eyes. Unlike Heero, however, Quatre knew he was free to step in and help protect Relena.

Quatre stood suddenly, causing Relena to jump in surprise and pull her hand away from Heiran's. "Mr. Yaturi, I believe Relena has given you her answer. It is the same one that she has given you before, and it is the same one she will give you after. If you're finished with your business, then I believe it is time for you to leave." He was amazed he was able to keep a steady, if stern, tone as Heiran stood to glare at him.

He was surprised to notice for the first time that he was actually taller than the older man… which meant that he had the advantage… and Heiran seemed to realize this as his eyes flashed in anger.

"I do not believe you are Miss Relena, Mr. Winner. It would be wise of you to keep your nose out of other people's business." They could almost hear the frustrated man's teeth grinding as he spoke.

Quatre chuckled in amusement. "Do you honestly believe you scare me, Mr. Yaturi? I've seen and done more frightening things than anything you may have seen in your worst nightmares…" Quatre was surprised at how terrible he sounded.

As he began to worry about his sanity, he realized it seemed to be working because Heiran had stopped meeting his gaze, and even seemed to be leaning slightly back to put some distance between them without seeming to.

He noticed Relena's scared expression but knew it was too late to back down from this strange stance he had taken.

"Quatre…? Are you all right?" Relena asked shakily, but Quatre kept his focus on Heiran.

"I fear Mr. Winner may have become mentally unstable, which I have heard has happened a few times before. It may be in your best interest if he was removed from this situation, Miss Relena. And if you were wise, you'd remove him from piloting as well." Heiran's tone was a mixture of fear, concern, and ice as he glared at Quatre.

"Unfortunately, despite my own doubts about it, I believe I am perfectly sane. I seem to have a tendency to become like this upon seeing my friends being intimidated into doing something they don't want to." Quatre snapped.

He felt Relena place a concerned hand on his arm, but he ignored it as Heiran made a strange gesture. However, he couldn't ignore the click of a gun's safety being removed. He paled as he saw Heero's gun aimed right for his head.

"I'd advise you not to say or do anything to worsen your situation, Mr. Winner. This is between Miss Relena and me. I didn't want to resort to this, but obviously something has come loose in your mind and you've lost the ability to process rational thoughts." He said coldly as Quatre analyzed Heero's positioning.

Unfortunately, Quatre confirmed that Heero was positioned with the intent to shoot to kill. Quatre noted there was no apology in Heero's expression… which meant that he intended to act on the promise he made back when Quatre had become temporarily insane and destroyed a colony.

"My position remains the same." Relena said shakily as her hand gripped Quatre's arm tightly. She was deeply afraid for her friend's safety, but knew refusing Heiran's proposal was the only thing she could do that wouldn't jeopardize everything she had been working on.

Before Heiran could respond, the door burst open to reveal Milliardo and the rest of the Gundam pilots aiming their guns at Heiran.

"What is the meaning of this, Commander Peacecraft?" Heiran asked icily as he automatically raised his hands to be level with his head.

"Where to begin…?" Milliardo mused coldly.

"Thanks for everything, Heero. You can drop the act now." Duo said warily as he noticed the situation. A hint of a smile appeared on Heero's face as he changed his aim to Heiran.

Once the gun was off of him, Quatre collapsed shakily into his chair; he held a hand to his chest as he closed his eyes in relief.

As he did so, Relena unconsciously put a comforting hand on his shoulder as she stared at what was happening.

Heiran's eyes narrowed as he looked at Heero. "I knew I should have kept you on a tighter leash…"

"You don't know me too well, then. I still would have found a way to work against you. My loyalty will always be hers." Heero replied icily as security officers came in and took Heiran into their custody.

"Oh, by the way, before you consider getting your agents involved, you can forget about it. We took care of them before we came after you." Milliardo growled.

Heiran shot a dangerous look at Heero before being dragged away by the security officers.

Relena stared in confusion at the scene that had just occurred before her eyes. "What…?"

"It's a long story." Duo said as the pilots put away their guns.

"You had me worried for a moment there." Heero said as he glanced at Quatre, who couldn't help but laugh.

"I had myself worried. I honestly don't know what came over me."

"Whatever it was, it kept him distracted long enough for the others to finally show. I was wondering how long it would take you to come." Heero said as he shot an annoyed look at the other pilots.

Trowa shrugged unapologetically. "It took us a while to round up his agents. However, if it weren't for that disc, we would have missed more than half of them."

"What's going to happen now?" Relena asked, even though she was still confused about what had happened.

"He's going to jail… for the rest of his life if I have any say about it." Milliardo growled.

"We'll explain everything to you as soon as we can, Relena." Duo said with a shrug as he noticed her confused expression.

She shook her head. "So long as that man is out of my life and Heero is back on our side, I don't care what happened."

The others nodded in agreement as Relena began to make plans to find all the evidence they could in order to ensure Heiran stayed behind bars for as long as possible.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Hey guys! Another Monday, another update! Don't worry about Quatre, he's perfectly sane. However, admit it: after something as traumtic as what happened to him in the series, do you honestly think he'd magically be fully adjusted ever again? My answer is obviously not really. It's rare, but enough stress could push Quatre back to the dark side. This was just a taste of what could happen if he were pushed. Does it happen again, or does something worse happen? Well, in the immortal words of the late Robert Jordan: Read and Find Out. Also, now that Heiran's plans have been dashed, what will happen next? Once again, RaFO.


	9. Unexpected Dangers

Chapter 9: Unexpected Dangers

Heiran Yaturi's arrest for treasonous plots against the ESUN generated unexpected reactions from the people of the colonies, especially in colonies where Heiran's company had a strong influence.

It turned out that Heiran had a contingency plan that he had kept secret from Heero, which resulted in slandering propaganda against the ESUN being unleashed by his company upon the colonies.

The ESUN didn't learn about the propaganda until riots began to spring up within the colonies as people who believed the propaganda began demanding for his release. Despite the ESUN's attempts at damage control, the damage had already been done, and the Winner Corporation experienced fallout thanks to Quatre's close ties to the ESUN's leaders.

The colonies soon became divided into those who supported the ESUN and the Winner Corporation and those who supported Heiran Yaturi and his corporation.

Quatre was forced to order the suspension of several Winner Corporation-sponsored projects because Heiran's supporters had begun attacking the workers as they were working.

Despite the best efforts of the ESUN to track down the former back-up pilots, they appeared to have vanished, and the Defence Council began to suspect they were responsible for the extreme reactions of Heiran's supporters.

A crew of investigators was sent up to Heiran's corporate headquarters and his home to search for evidence that could be used by the prosecution against him in the trial. With Heero's extensive knowledge of both locations, he volunteered to go to help them.

Dr. Erickson had examined Heero upon learning about his decision and warned Heero that his wound had been placed under a great deal of stress due to his recent activity and that it hadn't been healing as well as it should have despite its progress beforehand. He tried to stop Heero in fear that Heiran's violent supporters could potentially reopen the wound if he was forced to fight them; however, Heero ignored his warnings and personally piloted the shuttle carrying the investigators to the colony.

* * *

Relena stood at the foot of the stairs when the shuttle returned to the ESUN, looking up at the door in concern as it opened. She had requested to meet them personally because of how dangerous the task was they had been asked to undertake; she felt it would be an insult to their bravery if she had sent a representative in her stead. Despite objections from Milliardo, she did it anyways.

Around a dozen men and women disembarked, sporting various injuries as they carried down large boxes that would hopefully contain damning evidence against Heiran.

The lead inspector stopped at the bottom of the stairs and shook Relena's hand.

"I'm glad to see everyone isn't seriously hurt. I have to thank you and your staff for risking yourselves for such an unimportant task." Relena said gratefully.

The inspector shook her head dismissively. "Every task we're given is important, even if you don't see it that way. Of course, if it weren't for Mr. Yuy, we probably wouldn't have made it back here at all. I was horrified with how violent that man's supporters were. He's really stirred up a hornet's nest up there, Lady Relena. It's going to be hard to quell their anger…" She said in concern.

Relena sighed and nodded. "We'll try to do what we can…" Both women glanced at a van that was waiting nearby as the driver honked the horn in impatience. "You'd better hurry and join the others so that Milliardo can get your hard-earned work as soon as possible."

The inspector nodded and thanked Relena again before running over to the van.

Once it drove away, she knew there was only one person left on the shuttle. She smiled once Heero appeared in the doorway as she leaned on the railing the same way she had the last time she met Heero at a disembarking, lately it had been the other way around and she had to admit she missed being the one waiting for them.

He closed his eyes for a few moments before descending the stairs.

She frowned in concern as she noticed that the sun was shining off of his shirt.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he slipped.

Relena caught him before he could fall. "What's wrong?" She asked in concern.

"It's nothing." Heero said as he steadied himself and stepped away from her.

She stared up at him in concern before she felt wetness on her arm. Her eyes widened as she looked at it and saw blood.

Horrified, she gasped as she stared at him. "Your wound's reopened!"

Heero looked away. "It's fine, don't worry about it."

"Stubborn man!" She growled as she ripped her sleeve from her shirt and pressed it against his wound hard enough for him to succumb to the pain so she could lead him to her car.

"His wound's reopened, please hurry to the hospital." Relena said shakily.

Alexander nodded. "I'll notify Dr. Erickson that we're on our way." He said as she forced Heero into the car.

"Thank you very much." She smiled at him before climbing into the car.

Alexander nodded in reply before shutting the door and getting behind the wheel.

* * *

Once the car began to move, she eased up on the pressure she had been applying. "What happened?" She asked worriedly. "And please don't say 'nothing'; I know it was bad because the lead inspector told me." She warned before he could speak.

He fell silent for a few moments before closing his eyes in defeat, knowing she wouldn't stop bothering him until she had gotten what she wanted.

"The supporters appeared to have been forewarned about our raid of his office. Yaturi must have gotten word out to those nine somehow. The mansion raid went off with no problems, but the office building was surrounded by his supporters. I have a feeling that he didn't care about the mansion… he probably didn't think there was anything important to find there. You'll be glad to know that the supporters aren't as numerous as we first thought… unfortunately, their rabid behaviour makes up for that fact."

Relena frowned in concern as he took a few moments to try and organize the chaotic memories.

"Almost as soon as we were away from the escort, they came at us. None of them were armed, so I fired my gun to get them to back down. We got in without a problem, although I did have to kill the security guards." He cringed in pain as Relena angrily increased the pressure to his wound.

One of the conditions of the raid was not to kill anyone to keep the public relations damage to a minimal.

"They were ready to kill us… I had no choice." He growled through the pain.

She sighed as she reduced the pressure.

"I'm sorry…" He said softly.

She stared at him in surprise before quickly shaking her head. "Don't worry about it… please continue…"

"I couldn't use the same tactics coming out as I did going in because I had run out of ammunition, and I didn't have my decoy gun. However, I had managed to clear a path for the investigators. His supporters didn't seem to care whether they hit us or each other…" He shook his head. "I think somebody had a bat. I took an extremely hard blow to the chest, but I couldn't see from what. It definitely wasn't a fist or a kick, I could tell that much. I didn't notice that my wound had reopened until we were re-entering the atmosphere."

She smiled at him. "Thank you for everything…"

"By the way… it was Kareem."

Relena's eyes widened in surprise; she hadn't expected him to ever tell her who had shot him. "Thank you for telling me… Please rest now…" She tossed the blood-soaked sleeve onto the floor and removed her other sleeve to replace it.

Heero nodded and closed his eyes as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Please hurry, Alexander…" She said worriedly as the car picked up speed.

* * *

At the mansion, the other pilots were waiting for word from the investigation party in the library.

Quatre sighed in concern. "I wish we had been allowed to go with them. I'm worried…"

Duo nodded grimly. "From what I've heard, things have been getting really bad up there. Heero alone may not be enough to protect the investigators."

"You worry too much. You said it yourself, Duo. It would take a great deal of strain for that wound to reopen. I highly doubt he'd be under that much pressure." Wufei said dismissively. "It's just a bunch of untrained people. If they were soldiers who had been trained in hand-to-hand, then I could see where your worry comes from, but they're not. I assure you that Heero will be able to handle them."

"You're just as cold as ever, Wufei." Duo said as he rolled his eyes.

"He does bring up a good point." Trowa admitted. "Although I do agree with you two, Wufei is also right. A mob is dangerous to untrained individuals, but as we all know by now, Heero's been trained in combat since he was a child. As long as they are unarmed, they'll be easy for him to handle."

"But remember, Trowa, he has to protect all of those people. He'll be taking a lot of hits for them. I would agree with you if he was by himself, but…"

Trowa frowned in concern at Quatre's reminder.

"You guys don't have to worry any longer. Reports are that the shuttle has landed. The investigation team is a little banged up, but aside from some small bruises and cuts, they're fine."

The pilots sighed in relief as Noin reported the situation to them as she leaned against the doorway.

"Is there any word on Heero?" Quatre asked worriedly.

Noin shrugged uncertainly, a frown crossing her face. "According to the investigation team, he was fine enough to pilot the shuttle successfully back to Earth, but there hasn't been any word from him or Relena."

"If it weren't for the fact that it's Heero, I'd say there'd be cause to worry." Duo said with a shake of his head.

Noin rolled her eyes and shook her head at him. "Anyways, I've gotta go interview a new security officer for the mansion. I stopped by because I figured you'd like the update." She said before leaving.

The pilots looked at each other in concern.

"I know we can trust Noin's judgement in situations like this, but…" Quatre shrugged warily.

"Varying opinions are always good considering it is Relena's security this person is charged with." Trowa agreed as he put away the book he had seemingly forgotten about in the midst of their conversation.

"Well at least we know what we'll be doing until Relena returns." Wufei admitted as they went to examine the potential new member of Relena's staff.

* * *

By the time they found where Noin was conducting the interview, it seemed to be already over. She stood in front of the door, effectively blocking the person from the pilots' view.

"Trowa, can you see anything?" Quatre asked as Trowa stretched as far as he could to try and see over Noin.

"No. Even though I'm easily taller than her, she's blocking the person from view. They must be sitting." He admitted as he dropped down to his normal height.

"Well I don't see any blood, so I'm assuming they passed Noin's standards." Wufei said with a shake of his head.

Duo frowned as he tried to listen to Noin's final words to the person.

"Duo? What's wrong?" Quatre asked as he noticed.

"I know that voice…" He muttered as he walked closer to the door.

The others stared at him in confusion as Noin glanced back at them.

"I had a feeling you guys would want to check out the new recruit…" She said as she tried to hide her amusement as Duo passed her.

The other pilots looked at her in confusion, but she kept her silence as she allowed them into the room.

Duo could only stare stunned as Hilde sat smiling up at him. "Hey guys, it's been a while." She said as the others stood behind Duo.

"Hilde? Why are you here?" Quatre asked in surprise.

"I've been hearing about everything that's been happening down here. I'm sick of sitting on the side lines and waiting to hear that something bad has happened to one of you. That false report about Heero's death nearly killed me. I want to help in any way I can." She said sternly, glaring at the pilots as though it was somehow their fault.

Duo sighed as he shook his head. "I know you're as stubborn as the rest of us, so I won't try to stop you."

The others stared at him in surprise. They had figured he'd want her as far from the conflict as she could be.

"Duo…?" Quatre asked.

Duo glanced back at him. "Besides, if reports are to be believed, the colonies aren't exactly the safest place to be right now."

"And with her experience as an OZ soldier, no matter how short it was, she's an invaluable ally." Noin added. "Come on, Hilde; let's get your uniform ready."

Hilde nodded and followed Noin from the room.

Once they were gone, Duo slapped his forehead and let out an exasperated sigh. "Damn this is gonna drive me crazy…" He said as he slumped onto the back of the chair.

Trowa chuckled. "I knew he was putting on a front."

Quatre put a hand on Duo's shoulder. "Don't worry. We're here to keep an eye on her. She'll be just fine."

"That's the problem: I know she'll be fine. Hell, she's probably safer with us than she was at the scrap yard." He shrugged as he regained his composure. "Oh well… come on, we should be on the lookout for Relena and Heero. They should be coming back at some point."

The others could only shake their heads as he left. "Who would have thought the most care-free guy of our group would probably be one to grow up the most since we met?" Quatre asked as he shook his head.

"He does have a good point, though. I've had some concerns about the circus. Thankfully, they're pretending to be supporters of Yaturi, so they're safe from their wrath." Trowa said worriedly.

"Your circus troupe is made up of some fairly intelligent people…"

Trowa stared at Wufei in surprise before smiling. "That's true… I just hope we can fix this before it becomes an all-out war…"

The others nodded in concern as they finally decided to follow Duo, wondering what was taking Heero and Relena so long to report in.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Hooray! Chapter 9 is up! Sorry for all these non-action chapters, but they're just as important to the story as the action chapters. Please bear with me, they'll be done with soon enough.


	10. Gone

Chapter 10: Gone

Outside of Relena's mansion, Hilde stood in her new security uniform that she had to wear. She sighed as she tugged at the collar, remembering the last time she had worn a uniform. A slight cringe formed as she remembered how she felt betrayed by OZ after learning their true motives from Duo and the other pilots.

She looked around warily; she had been asked to watch out for Relena and Heero, but concern gnawed at her because there had been no contact with either of them. As the temptation to request to go out and look for them became stronger, the car she had been told to watch for pulled into the driveway, causing her to sigh in relief.

"It's about damn time…" She muttered gratefully. However, the worry was quickly back when Relena helped Heero from the car. "Guys… they're finally back… however, it looks as though Heero's injured…" She said into the radio she had been given as she noticed the dry blood shining on his shirt. She jumped in surprise as the doors swung open and the pilots came out with grim faces.

"I told you he'd reopen his wound…" Duo said in irritation as they walked quickly towards Relena to help her with Heero, who was still somewhat weakened from the blood that he had lost.

Hilde glared in irritation at them, realizing they had been waiting by the doors the entire time.

Duo shrugged apologetically to her as he noticed her glare while he and the other pilots led Heero into the mansion.

Relena paused in surprise as she realized who it was that was guarding the doors. "Hilde?"

"Hey Relena, it's been a while. Hopefully Duo hasn't been causing you too much trouble."

Relena laughed and shook her head. "No more than usual."

"Great, then I get to kick his ass later." She said with a grin as she rubbed her hands together.

Relena smiled in amusement as she put a hand on Hilde's shoulder. "Yes I guess that means you do… come on inside. If you're part of the mansion's security team, you have to do what I say." She added as Hilde opened her mouth to protest.

Hilde nodded reluctantly and followed Relena inside; obediently answering Relena's questions about what she had been doing since the last time they had met.

* * *

After a stern warning from Heero that if any of them said anything about his reopened wound they'd be dead, the group settled in to have a relaxing conversation with the belief that once they got the people to calm down that things would finally return to normal.

Unfortunately, the conversation was cut short when Noin received a disturbing phone call from Milliardo.

She paled as she listened to what he had to say. "Are you certain…? All right… Relena and Heero made it back here safely. They're fine… Thanks. We'll keep an eye out. Be careful…" She sighed as she hung up and was immediately pelted with concerned questions from the pilots.

She raised her hand and immediately received the silence that she needed in order to tell them the grim news. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but…" She hesitated for a few moments before their concerned looks made her press on. "Heiran Yaturi has just escaped from jail. They haven't figured out how, yet."

The colour drained from Relena's face as she realized what this would mean for the peace that she had worked so hard to put together. Looking around at the grim expressions on the pilots' faces made it clear they were thinking along the same lines. She even noted that Hilde was holding Duo's hand worriedly as she watched Noin to see if the Colonel had anything more to add.

"I know how… it was those nine…" Heero growled angrily.

The murderous expression on Heero's face made Relena worry that he would ignore his injuries and try to hunt down Heiran personally and, if he were to succeed in finding him, kill him on the spot.

"From what I can tell, he has a contingency plan for every scenario that could happen to him." Trowa said thoughtfully as Quatre sighed in frustration.

"That's why we couldn't find them; they were in hiding, waiting for his signal…"

Heero nodded as he looked directly at Relena. "You trained them too well, and Yaturi added to their training… now we may be staring down nine younger versions of ourselves."

Relena sighed sadly. "Milliardo had expressed concern about them turning on us… I should have listened to him."

"Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, you know that… all we can do now is find him and stop him before he puts any more plans into action." Quatre said sternly.

"Don't worry about it Relena, Milliardo's already got the ESUN's 'hounds' on his trail. Hopefully they can find him before it is too late." Noin said in order to try and curb the murderous looks on some of the pilots' faces. She was relieved when they nodded in agreement as they began planning various counter measures to anything Heiran may do now that he was free again.

* * *

Heiran smirked as he stood within the hangar at Relena's mansion and stared up at the sleeping Gundams.

Despite all the security measures the Gundam's former home had, the hangar in Relena's mansion had minimal security. The constructors felt that the mansion's external security would be enough to protect the Gundams and opted out of making an enhanced system specifically for the Gundams in order to cut the costs that were associated with the addition.

Caden, Andrew and Yamato stood beside him and stared up at the suits in anticipation.

"All right… choose your Gundam. The Wing Zero is off limits though, since they were never foolish enough to train you on how to handle the ZERO System."

They nodded and began walking towards the Deathscythe Hell, Altron and Sandrock.

"Wait, Yamato."

Yamato paused on his way towards the Sandrock.

"Although the Sandrock would be more practical than the Heavyarms… I fear that we have no choice but to take the Heavyarms." Heiran said with a frown.

"What do you mean?" Yamato asked in annoyance as Caden and Andrew turned to look at him in curiosity.

"I suddenly remembered hearing odd reports about the Sandrock from my former contacts within the ESUN… Any time anyone other than Mr. Winner piloted it; it would shut down or act of its own accord." He said with a shake of his head.

"Is that even possible?" Andrew asked in disbelief.

"Although I don't want to believe it, apparently it is true. They ran some tests last year, if my memory serves me right, and those were the results of the Sandrock test. None of the other Gundams seemed to have had that problem." He scowled in annoyance.

"It seems as though Mr. Winner purposely enjoys blocking my plans at every turn…" Heiran growled in disdain as the former recruits went towards the three Gundams. "Let's hurry; it will be only a matter of time before they realize we're here." Heiran warned as they climbed into the suits and the hum of activation from the three suits echoed loudly in the silent hangar.

Heiran scowled up at the Wing Zero, wishing there was some way to disable it and the Sandrock to prevent pursuit. He knew Heero's wound would make Relena hold him back, but there was nothing stopping the Sandrock from coming after them. There was also Milliardo and that damn Tallgeese III. The thought made him cringe, but he knew that there was nothing that damn Commander could do without knowing where they were, and since they covered their tracks it would be too late for him to act.

* * *

The house began to shudder, making everyone alert as they jumped to their feet warily.

"I never knew the Sanc Kingdom had earthquakes…" Hilde said worriedly as she looked around.

"It doesn't…" Heero said icily.

"The hangar…" Trowa said suddenly as the colour drained from the pilot's faces. They bolted from the living room with Relena, Noin and Hilde close behind.

"Damn! Why didn't we think they'd come after our Gundams? They're trained to use them just as handily as we are." Duo snarled in frustration.

"Probably because we thought the guards outside would have caught them." Trowa answered grimly.

They made it to the hangar in time to see that the three suits were already a fair distance from the hangar. Heero and Quatre made to go to their Gundams to give chase, but Relena stopped them by grabbing their arms with a surprisingly strong grip.

"It's already too late for the Sandrock to try and catch up to them, and your wound needs time to heal, so the Wing Zero has to stay put." Relena said as she tried to keep her voice calm, but everyone could hear the quiver of anger that had crept in near the end.

"True… the Wing Zero would be able to catch them, but they would fight back and Heero shouldn't take any more risks on reopening his wound again… whoever's plan it was to shoot him definitely knew what kind of problems he'd have if the situation turned against Heiran's favour." Trowa said in irritation as he folded his arms and watched the Heavyarms with a dangerous look in his eye.

"That would be Andrew… Unfortunately, he appears to be that group's equivalent to Quatre." Heero growled.

"Great. That's the last thing we need… a tactician on their side." Wufei muttered in frustration as he watched the Altron.

Noin was the only one who didn't seem frustrated by the situation. "Don't worry about it… we have one thing in our favour that they won't know about until it's too late."

The others looked at her in confusion. "When you guys installed the upgrades to the other suits, you installed something else into the Gundams… that something was probably the only reason they left the Wing Zero behind."

Heero couldn't help but smirk in satisfaction. "The ZERO System…"

Noin nodded to the other's surprised stares.

"Of course! You never trained them with the ZERO System, so they would avoid the only Gundam known to have it." Quatre said as he slapped his forehead, wondering how something like that could get past him.

"We figured it would be best to implant the ZERO System in the other suits as a precautionary measure. Once the system activates in each of the Gundams, there will be a period of time when an untrained pilot's brain heads into shock." Noin explained.

"And that will be the time to disable the other Gundams." Duo said with a wince as he imagined what would have to be done to disable their mechanical comrades.

"Notify Milliardo about this. He isn't going to be pleased, but there isn't much we can do at this point…" Relena told Noin, who nodded and left as Wufei went over and activated the hangar gate.

As the gate began to close, Relena, Heero and Quatre left, discussing a plan of action to retrieve the stolen Gundams.

Hilde stood by Duo's side, resting a hand on his shoulder, as the three pilots stared at the empty spaces that had housed their partners until the gate closed.

"Come on; let's go help find a way to get our Gundams back." Wufei growled as he left with Trowa nodding and following.

Duo patted Hilde's hand in gratitude before joining the other pilots with an arm around Hilde's waist.

* * *

Everyone stood around Relena's desk back at the ESUN headquarters as they tried to piece together where the Gundams were headed from eye witness reports gathered by the Defence Council.

The Gundams had mysteriously vanished from view before leaving Sanc Kingdom territory and hadn't been seen since.

The pilots had a feeling their Gundams had been put in transports to avoid being located.

"Relena, this notice just came in…" Mariemaia said worriedly as she walked into the room.

"What is it?" Sally asked as she took the notice from Mariemaia and read it. A frown appeared on her face as she handed the notice to Relena. "Well, I think we know where they were going now…" She said grimly.

"Luxembourg's petition for independence went through. They're now sovereign from the ESUN on a trial basis lasting the remainder of this year…" Relena read out to the group, causing the pilots to curse in frustration.

"Luxembourg's now the perfect place for them to hide because we won't be able to go in without their temporary government's permission." Milliardo growled.

"Anyone want to take bets that Yaturi bribed government officials of Luxembourg in some way?" Duo asked seriously.

"That sounds like something he'd do. He definitely has the funds to pay them whatever it would take to get them on his side." Quatre admitted with a shake of his head.

"We froze all of his known assets though, so it can't be money he's bribing them with…" Une frowned as she spoke while looking at a file sheet that most likely contained all of Heiran's information on it.

"What would Luxembourg need that Yaturi could possibly give them?" Trowa asked worriedly.

"No offence to the politicians in this room, but most politicians tend to be pretty easy to corrupt. It could be anything…" Duo said with a shake of his head.

"Thank you for bringing this to me, Mariemaia. I just hope we can act on it before it's too late." Relena said as she threw the piece of paper onto her desk in disgust.

Mariemaia nodded in understanding. "I hope so too…"

Relena turned to Une with a grim expression on her face. "General Une, can you get working on the Luxembourg government so we can go in and extract Yaturi and his pilots?"

Une nodded and walked out of the room, leaving the sheet of paper on Relena's desk as she did so.

"When we're given the 'all clear', Milliardo, can I count on you and Quatre to go in and extract them?"

Milliardo and Quatre nodded, knowing that they were the only ones who could do it without becoming rash and causing trouble for the ESUN.

She noted Heero's scowl, but decided she would have to speak to him later.

"What do the rest of us do in the mean time?" Wufei asked impatiently.

"Sit tight and wait. That's all you can do." Milliardo ordered.

The pilots who were out of action looked annoyed at the thought that they couldn't do anything, but reluctantly, they all nodded in agreement and hoped that the situation could be handled quickly before it got too far out of hand.

"Good… please make sure the Tallgeese III and Sandrock are primed for combat. I know they won't go down without a fight." Relena ordered.

Milliardo and Quatre nodded in understanding.

"It'll take us a while before we can get permission." Noin said in concern.

"Luxembourg will most likely fight tooth and nail against us, especially if they're working for Yaturi." Sally said with a grim expression.

"In the meanwhile, the only thing we can do is hope we can break Luxembourg before Yaturi can do something drastic with the knowledge he'll have access to with them in his hands..." Milliardo growled as the pilots nodded reluctantly, knowing it was going to be a long wait.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Hey guys! Told you the action would start again soon. If you're wondering why none of the pilots expressed concern over why they suddenly decided that all of the Gundams needed the ZERO System, it's because they had a feeling it would happen eventually because of Milliardo's orders without the other politicians' knowledge. Plus, that's now their only trump card against the younger pilots.


	11. Into Luxembourg

Chapter 11: Into Luxembourg

By the time Luxembourg's politicians began to weaken to the ESUN's requests to allow the Sandrock and the Tallgeese III to enter the country, the leaves had begun to change colour.

Quatre sighed from the cockpit of the Sandrock as the two suits stood outside the Luxembourg border, awaiting the 'all clear'. "It took us far too long to get even this far…"

Milliardo nodded in agreement as his face appeared on Quatre's side screen. _"I agree… Hopefully that wasn't part of Yaturi's plans…"_

"I hope so too. With those three at his disposal, and the Wing Zero before this, he can make Gundams that can exploit our Gundams' weaknesses. Not to mention that he's gained access to the NJD canceller's information…" Quatre admitted with a thoughtful frown as his mind began bringing up all sorts of horrible things that Heiran Yaturi could be using that information for.

"_What happened to the Sandrock's submachine gun? I could have sworn we ordered it to be built along with the rest of the Gundam's equipment."_ Milliardo asked in concern, wishing the Sandrock had at least some long-range offence.

"It was cancelled in the final stages of construction because of cost concerns and it was never put back into production." Quatre said as he told Milliardo the exact same thing that Relena had told him when he had asked her the same question.

Milliardo grimaced in reply.

Quatre sighed as he noticed the older pilot's expression. "Don't worry; I share your concerns too… which is why I have put it into production personally."

Milliardo stared at him in surprise, but Quatre put up a hand to prevent him from speaking.

"Unfortunately, it won't be done for a while. I didn't get a chance to put it into production after we got back because I've been so busy working on catching up on company backlogs, so I only put it into production a week before we came down to Earth."

"_I see… well, when it is completed, it will be beneficial to have it with the Sandrock again."_

Quatre shrugged uncertainly. "Admittedly, I'm torn between being glad to have one less killing tool in my arsenal, but I'm also regretting not having put it into production sooner simply because of how it could have changed our situation by making our fights a bit easier."

Before Milliardo could reply, Noin appeared on both of their screens. _"I bring good news, and bad news."_ She said with a shake of her head.

"I had a feeling you'd say that… what is it?" Quatre asked worriedly.

"_You're allowed to enter, but not allowed to engage in combat."_

"_What?"_ Milliardo snapped in shock.

"That's crazy!" Quatre yelled as he stared at Noin in horror, knowing what that could mean for them if they had to drag out the battle too long.

"_I know. Relena's working on removing that restriction as fast as she can. Please be careful. We can't afford to lose you two."_

Quatre and Milliardo nodded gravely as the Sandrock and the Tallgeese III walked across the unseen border into Luxembourg.

"_Oh yeah, the guys send a message: please don't trash our suits."_ Noin said as she tried to hide the amusement from her face.

Quatre nodded as he tried to smile, but the weight of the suicide mission he and Milliardo were on prevented it from happening. "Tell them we can't make any promises, but we'll try to keep damage to a minimum."

Noin nodded. _"All right… I'll let you know the second the fight restriction has been lifted."_

Both men thanked her as their suits' thrusters roared to life and the suits flew towards the location they had determined to be Heiran's hideout.

* * *

Hidden away in a control room somewhere in Luxembourg, Heiran smirked as he learned that the Sandrock and the Tallgeese III were on their way. He glanced at a wall that had four monitors embedded in it. "Go out and greet them." He instructed casually to three screens showing Caden, Andrew and Yamato.

The three pilots nodded before vanishing. Their images were quickly replaced with three others: Kareem, Steven, and Michael.

"How are they coming?" Heiran asked.

"_We're just putting the finishing touches on them now. Do you want us to mobilize too?"_ Kareem asked.

Heiran shook his head. "We'll take the wait and see approach. However, I don't want any damage coming to those three. The others are still under construction at this location, so we can't risk anything happening to the ones you have over there unless it's absolutely necessary."

"_Understood… we'll stay in the warehouse until the fight is over, unless the situation gets out of hand and we're forced to act."_ Steven repeated back to him.

Heiran nodded. "Good… now I must keep my attention on Relena's fruitless attempts to win over the Luxembourg government." He said with a smirk as all three pilots nodded before vanishing from the screens.

"Those idiots at the ESUN are falling for all of my traps… it almost seems too easy…" He muttered worriedly. "Sure, the fact that they were able to raid my home and the office without any of them dying was a bit annoying, but… for them to fall so easily for something like this…?" He frowned as his mind raced for an answer, but when it couldn't come up with one, he simply dismissed it and put his focus back on the situation at the negotiation tables that were displayed on the fourth monitor.

He couldn't hear what was going on, but just watching Relena pleading with the Luxembourg politicians was amusing enough for him as he enjoyed the look of desperation on her face. He had wanted to take over the ESUN the easy way, but she and those pet pilots of hers had forced his hand, now he wanted to make her pay dearly for crossing him…

* * *

A warning on his control panel alerted Quatre to the Heavyarms' incoming missiles, allowing the Sandrock to narrowly dodge them. "I had a feeling they'd use our own suits against us… well, at least we know what they're capable of." Quatre admitted as the Tallgeese III was forced to dodge both of the Altron's dragon claws.

"_Yeah… I'm just glad we never upgraded the Gatling gun on the Heavyarms."_

"Don't forget that we never got to change the Deathscythe Hell's scythe shaft. Depending on how badly damaged it was after Duo activated the heat rod, and depending on the accuracy of the calculations your simulators ran… if we can put enough stress on the shaft, we could probably break it."

"_That would take care of one suit, but the Heavyarms doesn't need to rely on just its long range weaponry. Although he's never been forced to resort to them, both arms contain army knives."_

Quatre idly wondered if Trowa was aware of this information before nodding. "Thanks for the warning. You're right though. Since we're unable to fight back, we'll just have to force the Heavyarms to run out of ammunition and deal with the army knives when that time comes. The Altron on the other hand…" Quatre was forced to trail off as the Deathscythe Hell charged at him.

The Heavyarms attacked the two suits indiscriminately as a well-timed burst of the Sandrock's thrusters enabled it to dodge the Deathscythe Hell. However, the Deathscythe Hell had the Sandrock in its sights as the Altron kept the Tallgeese III to itself.

"They fight like novices, but the since we're on the defensive against them, they still have the upper hand." Quatre observed.

"_I agree. I wish they'd hurry."_ Milliardo growled as the Altron fired its flamethrowers at the Tallgeese III from a close range, barely charring the head as it escaped.

"Are you all right?" Quatre asked as the Sandrock dodged a combined attack from the Heavyarms and the Deathscythe Hell.

"_Aside from getting a little warm, yeah… I'm fine."_ Milliardo said wryly as the Tallgeese III lured the Altron and made it crash into the Heavyarms, which was focused on the Sandrock and didn't notice the Tallgeese III's trick until the Altron slammed into it.

Quatre couldn't help but laugh at that novice mistake they made. "Were my eyes deceiving me? Did that really just happen?"

"_I'm surprised they fell for that."_ Milliardo said in genuine surprise.

"Since we aren't able to fight back, allowing them to run into each other would be a good tactic, but I doubt they'd fall for the same thing more than once. And remember: we're supposed to keep damage to a minimum."

"_We can repair any damage they cause to each other."_ Milliardo said dismissively as the Sandrock and Tallgeese III stood side-by-side and waited for the Deathscythe Hell and Altron to charge at them.

"I must admit, Milliardo, it's good to fight by your side again." Quatre said as they stared down the three suits that had their ranged weapons aimed directly at the two experienced pilots.

"_I agree. I just hope we live to fight by each other's sides again_."

Quatre nodded as the enemy suits fired at them.

* * *

Caden cursed from the cockpit of the Altron: the two veterans had used the dust cloud generated by their attacks to get away.

"_I told you we should have just charged them."_ Andrew said coolly from the Deathscythe Hell's cockpit as the Deathscythe Hell went to retrieve its shield.

"_Do you think they've fled?"_ Yamato asked warily as the Heavyarms looked around for any sign of the other two suits.

"_Quatre, maybe… but Milliardo doesn't seem the type to leave a battlefield, even if he can't fight back."_ Caden growled as his radar scanned for the two suits.

"_We have their stealth machine, so keep an eye on your radars. They can't hide forever from us as long as we keep our guards up."_ Andrew replied.

"_Speaking of which, why the hell don't you use that damn thing's specialty? We could use it to our advantage to take out at least one of their suits!"_ Caden snapped.

"_It's… a personal preference."_ Andrew admitted with a shrug. _"However, when the situation calls for it, I will activate the Hyper Jammers, don't worry."_ He said quickly as Caden opened his mouth to berate him.

Suddenly, Heiran appeared on their screens with an impatient frown. _"What's happening?"_ He snapped.

"_We lost them when they used one of our attacks as a smoke screen."_ Andrew admitted as he looked away from Heiran's frowning face.

"_Find them. They must not come across the warehouse. The others are finished, but I don't want those two stumbling on them. I would like to maintain an element of surprise… especially with that one in particular."_ He said, choosing his words carefully as though he was worried that the two veterans could be listening in to the conversation.

"_They could be waiting until Luxembourg allows them to fight. What should we do when that happens?"_ Caden asked in concern as the three suits split up to begin looking.

"_I will tell you what to do when the time comes."_ Heiran said icily before vanishing from their screens.

The three pilots nodded reluctantly as they fanned out and hoped they could find the veteran pilots before Luxembourg caved to Relena…

* * *

"_Why do I have a bad feeling about that warehouse?"_ Quatre asked in concern as the Tallgeese III and the Sandrock stood in a cleared section of forest where an apparently empty warehouse sat.

"_We should destroy it and anything that's in it. We can't have Heiran gaining any sort of an advantage on us."_

Quatre nodded in agreement as the Sandrock stepped forward and reached for the hilt of one of its Heat Shotels. _"I'll take care of it. Relena can't afford to lose you if Luxembourg decides to use this against us."_

"_All right…"_ Milliardo said reluctantly as the Tallgeese III took a few steps backwards.

Neither of them saw the Deathscythe Hell until it rammed into the Sandrock, disrupting the Hyper Jammer's effects.

The force of the impact sent the Sandrock dragging along the ground, leaving a deep gouge in the earth.

"_Quatre!"_ Milliardo roared as the Tallgeese III dodged an incoming attack from the Altron and the Heavyarms.

"_I'm fine!"_ Quatre said shakily as the Sandrock got to its feet.

"_Here we are thinking we're the veterans and yet we forgot about the Deathscythe Hell's abilities…"_ Milliardo growled as the Tallgeese III fell back to stand beside the Sandrock.

"_Admittedly, I didn't think they'd find us so soon. We moved as fast as our suits could to get away from them."_

"_They must have been coming here to check on whatever's in that warehouse. That means we were right to worry about it… damnit!"_ Milliardo's frustration with their situation was beginning to resonate with Quatre. He wished Luxembourg would stop stalling and give them permission to fight back.

The two suits were forced apart by the Altron's dragon claws.

"_Quatre, try and destroy that warehouse. I'll distract them."_ Milliardo ordered as the Tallgeese III charged towards the three suits, forcing them to scatter.

Quatre nodded reluctantly as the Sandrock charged at the warehouse with its Heat Shotels in hand, only to be cut off by a missile explosion from the Heavyarms.

The Altron charged at the Sandrock with its twin beam trident activated. The Sandrock narrowly dodged as the second blade of the trident grazed its side, leaving a small gash.

Just as both suits were forced to stand back to back, surrounded by the three suits, Noin appeared on their screens.

"_Please tell me you have good news."_ Milliardo said in exhaustion.

She smiled. _"Of course… you've been given permission to enter combat."_

Quatre cheered in relief. _"Give our thanks to Relena. We were getting into a bit of a situation."_

Milliardo nodded in agreement as the Tallgeese III brought out its beam sabre. _"Shall we?"_ He asked.

Quatre nodded as the Sandrock shifted to an attack stance. _"Let's show these rookies how true pilots fight…"_ He said icily as the two suits charged at the three enemy suits.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** To those of you wondering what happened to the Sandrock's long range weapon? There's your answer. Sorry it took until this story for you guys to find out.

Gotta love when politics get in the way of a mission, eh? Since the Gundam Pilots were essentially rebels in the old days, they didn't have to worry about things like attacking in other nations and the consequences that result from such hostile actions. However, now that they're on the ESUN's leash, they gotta be a lot more careful about how they do things. The next chapter brings these two back onto the battlefield properly. Hope you enjoy!


	12. the Veterans vs the Rookies

Chapter 12: the Veterans vs. the Rookies

Heiran frowned as he checked up on his pilots, and noticed their distressed expressions. "What's going on?"

"_Luxembourg must have caved! All of a sudden, they just started attacking us as though they didn't care what happened to these suits or themselves!"_ Caden said shakily.

"Humph. Those damn fools… I told them to wait until we had dealt substantial damage to the Sandrock and Tallgeese III." He grumbled to himself in annoyance.

"_Sir? What should we do?"_ Andrew asked worriedly as an explosion flashed behind his head.

"It's still three on two. I want all of their suits as badly damaged as they can be. We're not keeping these three, remember?"

The three reluctantly nodded as they vanished, only to be replaced with Kareem, Steven and Michael.

"_What's wrong?"_ Steven asked.

"Be on standby. They're close to the warehouse and Luxembourg gave them permission to fight. It seems as though our backs are against the wall. If things get worse, I'll tell you to enter the battle. I highly doubt they'll fight seriously. They want to keep all of those machines in good condition, or try to."

"_We understand sir."_ Kareem answered with a nod before the three images vanished, replaced with security footage of what was happening outside the warehouse, although Heiran was treated to mostly screens of dirt clouds and smoke from the fight on those ones, and there was the one screen devoted to the talks between Relena and the officials from Luxembourg.

He frowned when he noticed the room was empty. The talks were over far too soon for his liking. He had given those Luxembourg idiots explicit instructions and had warned them of the consequences if they hadn't followed them.

_The damn woman is a more capable negotiator than I had expected… However, that doesn't change a thing. With those five down, and Mr. Yuy in no physical shape to pilot, Relena will fall._

He chuckled coldly as he turned the screen from the empty meeting room to one of the other security cameras on the warehouse and watched the clouds of dirt and smoke generated by the five suits' furious fighting, occasionally being treated to scenes of the battle before the screen turned to dust clouds again.

* * *

Quatre muttered curses of frustration under his breath as the Sandrock dodged another attack from the Altron's flamethrowers. Because of them, the surrounding forest seemed like a wildfire that had been burning for weeks, limiting their fighting field.

Despite being given the attack orders, Quatre and Milliardo were still having trouble defeating the other three suits without resorting to their most damaging strategies.

"I'm going to have to apologise to Wufei when we return. We can't afford to take any more damage than we already have, and we can't afford to let them keep those machines any longer." Quatre admitted with a grim expression.

Milliardo's face in the screen on his side display frowned. _"So it's time we actually get serious?"_

Quatre nodded. "We have no choice. The Heavyarms doesn't seem to be running out of ammunition anytime soon, and whoever is piloting the Altron is being pretty conservative with the flamethrowers. They'll drag this out until all of our suits are out of commission."

"_I have a feeling that was their plan."_ Milliardo said wryly as the Tallgeese III dodged a barrage from the Heavyarms.

"_It looks as though the Deathscythe Hell's scythe shaft is sturdier than Noin and the others thought, despite that single activation of the heat rod. We've put a lot of pressure on it and it still hasn't broken."_

Quatre frowned worriedly as the Deathscythe Hell charged at the Sandrock. "I really hate having to resort to this, but maybe it will help to weaken the shaft…" He said more to himself than to Milliardo.

He hit a control and a few moments later, the Heat Shotels began to glow red with heat waves shimmering around them.

With swift movement only seen in veteran pilots who knew their machines well, Quatre's hands flew across the various controls and the Sandrock responded, quickly blocking the Deathscythe Hell's charge with the heated blades.

Quatre cringed as the impact caused the Sandrock's cockpit to shudder violently, causing the straps holding him in to rub deeper into his already bruised shoulders.

Against the titanium mass-produced mobile suits, there had been no concern about using the heat coils embedded in the blades, but against Gundanium there was a great deal of concern needed. They were a double-edge sword: making slicing through enemy suits easier by weakening the metal around them, but it also weakened the metal of the blades, which always made Quatre hesitant to use them for long periods of time against strong enemies.

The Sandrock threw back the Deathscythe Hell, which fell to the ground with a crash.

"_It seems as though that surprised him."_ Milliardo said in surprise as the Tallgeese III's heat rod lashed out at the Heavyarms, preventing it from attacking the Sandrock, who fired the Vulcan guns mounted on its head to force the Altron to back off as it tried to attack the Tallgeese III from behind.

"Should we try to push them? We still have the edge when it comes to their lack of knowledge about what lurks in the computer systems of those three."

Milliardo flashed a grin of amusement as he thought of their reactions before it faded into a frown of concern. _"Despite our piloting experience, it is still three high-grade suits against two. If we were facing mass-produced suits, there would be no problem. Unfortunately, they seem to have learned those three quite well. It'll be hard to push them to the point that the ZERO System thinks that it's needed."_

"Not to mention we don't have any long range suits with us. Are you certain you can't use the dobergun?" He asked worriedly.

"_I can only fire it once on my own power, Quatre. It has to be a last resort measure. Maybe I should use it to destroy the warehouse before we're faced with whatever's hiding in there."_

Quatre shook his head. "We don't know if the dobergun will be able to fully destroy what's in there. You'd have to get close in order to deal it a significant enough blow for it to be no longer our concern."

"_That's true… until that time comes_…_ keep trying."_

Quatre nodded in agreement as the two suits attacked the three Gundams in enemy hands.

* * *

Andrew frowned when he heard Caden curse as the Tallgeese III's beam sabre managed to damage part of the Altron's left hip joint before the beam trident turned it away. He wanted to warn Caden not to take them too lightly, which he seemed to do even when they began fighting back, but he was fighting for his life.

The Sandrock seemed to be putting pressure on him for some reason. The sudden activation of the Heat Shotels' heating coils had taken him by surprise, which he paid dearly for, but he quickly got over it.

Unfortunately, that little moment was all it took for the Sandrock to force him onto the defensive. Not even the Heavyarms' attempts to break them apart with gunfire seemed to stop the Sandrock's advances.

Even Caden was suddenly having more trouble with the Tallgeese III than they had expected. He was grateful when Heiran's face appeared on the side screen, although he was forced to see him only from the corner of his eye. The battle was taking up a fair bit of his concentration, and he knew it wouldn't end well for him if he let it slip as the Sandrock slashed at him, forcing him to block it with the Deathscythe Hell's scythe shaft.

"_What is happening?"_

"They're definitely better than us, sir… any time we accidentally give them an inch, they're over it like it was a huge gap. Even with three suits to their two, it's harder than we expected." He admitted quickly before Caden could answer.

He ignored Caden's scowl even though he was technically the leader of their group. He knew Caden would have lied to please Heiran, and they may have found themselves in a situation where they were dead and the warehouse was destroyed.

Caden had probably been made leader simply because of his eagerness to dispose of Relena, and that worried Andrew.

Heiran frowned in anger, but his voice was calm when he spoke. _"That's fine… I didn't expect them to get serious, but it appears as though they have. I never expected you to be able to keep on par with them for very long. However…"_

Andrew tried to hide a cringe behind a mask of concentration as the Deathscythe Hell managed to swing its beam scythe and force the Sandrock back a few steps, but the Sandrock charged again as though the beam scythe made no difference.

He hated whenever Heiran changed his mind in the midst of an operation.

Heero was supposed to have been killed after the Wing Zero was securely in their custody, but that suddenly changed because Heiran wanted to torture Relena a bit longer. That decision would become the first of many to their carefully laid plans, and it was the first to come back and bite them in the ass.

He braced himself for the new changes as Heiran began to speak again.

"_Overwhelm them and destroy them. Do not allow them to leave Luxembourg alive."_ He said icily.

Caden, Yamato and Andrew wore mirrored expressions of shock, before Caden nodded warily. _"So you mean to bring out Kareem, Michael and Steven?"_ He asked with a hint of irritation.

Heiran shrugged. _"That is for me to decide. Corral those two, if you can, and bring them down."_ He said with a more casual tone, but there was still an icy bite to it.

They nodded reluctantly as he vanished and began to try and bring the Sandrock and the Tallgeese III together.

Andrew frowned in worry as something began to feel off, but he dismissed it, thinking it was the stress of a real combat situation getting to him. However, he knew the battle wasn't going to go as easy as Heiran seemed to think it would, but he couldn't figure out why.

The Sandrock and the Tallgeese III seemed to realize what was happening, and refused to be corralled despite their best efforts.

He was beginning to get frustrated with the older pilots' apparent ability to outsmart the younger pilots, however, since he had thrown his lot in with Heiran he had no choice but to obey the man.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Sorry for the short chapter this time. Not much I can really say about this chapter. I may go back at some point and see if I can beef it up somehow or completely revamp it, but for now it stays the way it is.


	13. Uninvited Guests

Chapter 13: Uninvited Guests

Quatre could only stare in disbelief at the rookie pilots as they continued to try to corral the Sandrock and the Tallgeese III close together.

"_Do they honestly think-?"_ Milliardo's question was cut off as the warehouse door was blown open, forcing the Tallgeese III and the Altron to dodge it as it flew at them.

Quatre could hear Milliardo cursing under his breath as two new mobile suits stepped out from the warehouse. His mutterings ceased when the third suit stepped out, making both men pale in shock.

"_How did he…?"_ Milliardo was unable to finish his question, but Quatre knew what he was asking: how did Heiran Yaturi get his hands on a copy of the plans for the Gundam Epyon?

"Didn't Une say she had found and destroyed all copies of its blueprints after Treize died and it was destroyed?"

"_All known copies have been destroyed." _Milliardo confirmed, with emphasis on 'known', but that didn't make the image of the Epyon standing before them vanish.

"We can't let our guards down." Quatre realized suddenly, although it appeared as though the Deathscythe Hell, Heavyarms and Altron had all been caught off guard by the new arrivals' appearance.

"_Six on two makes our chances of getting out of here in one piece a lot lower."_ Milliardo growled grimly.

"I think that's the idea. I hate admitting it, but we may be forced to fall back if we want to remain alive with our Gundams in fair enough condition for us to be able to fight against them again." He was surprised to hear a bit of a growl in his own voice as he said that, but he knew it was the truth and he hated it as much as Milliardo did.

The six Gundams now had them surrounded in a horseshoe shape and they were being forced to back away into the inferno that had once been a beautiful Luxembourg forest.

* * *

Suddenly, just as Milliardo looked to be ready to call their retreat, an explosion erupted between the two groups of suits. The six suits were thrown back; some of them were even damaged, as Quatre and Milliardo glanced at the skies in shock. Hovering above them was the Wing Zero, with its twin buster rifle charging for another attack on the six suits.

"_Heero! Relena will kill you if she knows you're here!"_ Milliardo yelled in shock.

"I don't give a damn what she'll do." Heero replied icily as they appeared on his monitors.

Just as the others had recovered, the Wing Zero fired again, throwing them back down with the force of the explosion again. The Wing Zero descended, landing beside the Sandrock to stare down the six suits.

"_Heero, this isn't going to go over so well with Relena… and I doubt Luxembourg will be too happy."_ Quatre said in concern.

"Don't make me repeat myself." Heero said with an annoyed frown.

"_I see you're not surprised to see the Epyon."_ Milliardo growled flatly.

"It doesn't matter to me what suits they've built. The fact that they've built them is enough for me." He said dismissively as the Wing Zero set aside the twin buster rifle and brought out its beam sabre. Activating only one blade, it stood slightly in front of the Sandrock and the Tallgeese III. "Have you been able to activate their ZERO Systems?" He asked calmly as the other suits began to recover.

"_Not yet. We think we may have brought it close until those other three showed up."_ Quatre replied calmly.

An expression of surprise appeared quickly and vanished just as quickly on his face out of the corner of Heero's eye. Obviously he was surprised he could keep his voice so steady, when uncertainty and worry showed on his face.

"I guess there's only one way to solve that, then…" Heero said more to himself than to the others as the Wing Zero's shield arm took the beam sabre and retrieved the twin buster rifle with its free hand.

Milliardo apparently realized what he intended, because soon the dobergun was off its shoulder mount and aimed at the six suits.

"Quatre, you know what to do, right?"

Quatre smirked. _"Of course I do. Just be careful if you manage to fire off more than one shot, Heero."_

Heero nodded in reply as the six suits seem to stare at them uncertainly.

"_I wonder if they replicated the Epyon exactly…"_ Milliardo mused as the Epyon stood beside the Altron.

Without any sort of signal, the two suits fired their weapons at them. As soon as the explosions erupted, the Sandrock lunged forward with its Heat Shotels' heat coils activated, causing the blades to glow red. They needed to do as much damage as possible before the enemy could regain their composure; and force the Deathscythe Hell, Heavyarms, Altron, and perhaps the Epyon as well, to activate the ZERO System.

* * *

Caden cursed as the ground in front of them erupted into explosions. The six suits had managed to leap back from the incoming explosion, but now the three suits were hidden from them. His eyes widened as the Sandrock seemed to erupt from the smoke, slashing and destroying the weapons of Steven and Michael's Gundams.

With surprising agility, before any of them had any time to recover from the initial shock, the Sandrock set its sights on the Heavyarms.

Yamato had just enough time to raise the Heavyarms' Gatling gun before the Sandrock's Heat Shotels sliced cleanly through it in two places. Almost instantly, the other two suits were among them.

"What the hell is with these guys? Are they suicidal?" He growled in shock.

"_They're really taking us seriously… now we know how they've survived so long against similar odds."_

Caden was irritated with how calm Andrew seemed to be taking the sudden turn in their situation. Something seemed to be tingling in the back of his mind, but he ignored it as the Tallgeese III, Wing Zero and Sandrock took an interest in fighting the Deathscythe Hell, Heavyarms and Altron.

The other three suits stood off to the side, apparently unsure of what they were supposed to do.

"Don't just stand there, hurry up and help us!" Caden practically snarled in frustration with them.

Too many things were going against Heiran's favour ever since those Luxembourg idiots had allowed Relena's pets to start fighting back. He was barely turning away the Wing Zero's fierce slashes with its beam sabre, and he realized the others weren't fairing any better.

The Heavyarms without its Gatling gun had been forced to use its army knives, but because the Heat Shotels were longer, the Sandrock had a huge advantage.

The Deathscythe Hell tried to use its cloaking abilities, but the Tallgeese III's heat rod wrapped around it and forced the Deathscythe Hell back into the open when Andrew realized he couldn't get away as the Tallgeese III abandoned its heat rod to keep the Deathscythe Hell bound.

Finally the Epyon went after the Sandrock with the intention of fighting the other close-range Gundam, but before it got close, the Tallgeese III was there with its beam sabre aimed at the Epyon's cockpit.

Steven's Gundam came up behind the Wing Zero, only to have its weapon arm disabled by the activation of a hidden secondary beam sabre.

That sent Caden into a blind rage. He had thought Heero had divulged all of the Wing Zero's secrets, yet it had just become apparent that he hadn't. He was ready to end the Wing Zero's life as its cockpit came within the flamethrower's sights. Suddenly, the blade that he had been fending off with the trident moments before burned through the control panels and impaled him.

Caden's terrified screams halted the other suits as they looked over at the unmoving Altron in concern.

* * *

Heero's eyes narrowed as the Wing Zero threw Steven's Gundam away with ease once the Altron had stopped being a concern. _"I think we're going to have a lot of apologising to do."_ He commented as the beam sabre severed the Altron's head and arms at the elbow joints to prevent it from attacking if Caden recovered.

Quatre nodded in agreement as the Sandrock occupied itself with Michael's Gundam, unaware that the Deathscythe Hell had freed itself from the Tallgeese III's heat rod, its pilot had recovered from the shock brought on by Caden's screams, and was aiming its beam scythe at the Sandrock's back. The Sandrock moved, but the Deathscythe Hell's blade caught the leg of the Sandrock at the knee joint.

"_Quatre!"_ Milliardo yelled as they noticed the blade slicing through the knee. The beam burned through the knee in only a few moments, severing the leg cleanly off the suit.

"_Don't worry about me. I'm fine."_ Quatre said as the Sandrock rammed the Deathscythe Hell before it could attack again, throwing it onto the unmoving Altron's legs, pinning the suit.

Milliardo shook his head as the Tallgeese III recovered its heat rod in order to counter the Epyon's heat rod as the two Gundams appeared to be at a stalemate. _"It seems as though we're on the verge of ending this fight. The Altron's ZERO System must have activated. Whatever he saw must have shocked him into distracting the others. We've got the advantage; you two keep pushing the other two and finish them. I'll keep the Epyon and the others from you until they're done."_

Heero and Quatre nodded in agreement as the Wing Zero pulled the Deathscythe Hell's attention once it had recovered and the Sandrock fought against the Heavyarms, using its thrusters sparingly to keep its balance.

"_The Altron's been abandoned."_ Milliardo casually informed them as he saw Caden run from the cockpit.

"_Good. Let's try and force these two out as well."_ Heero said icily as the Wing Zero seemed to be handling the Deathscythe Hell with ease.

Andrew was unused to handling a close ranged suit like the Deathscythe Hell, and his inexperience was showing under the pressure being placed on him by the Wing Zero. He was being forced to repeatedly block the Wing Zero's beam sabres with the shaft of the beam scythe, ignoring a strange sound that seemed to be echoing from the Wing Zero, not realizing it was screams of protest emitted by the beam scythe's shaft as cracks began to form along the edge that was being repeatedly struck by the beam sabre.

Quatre and Milliardo allowed knowing smiles to appear on their faces as they realized Heero was trying both of their previous plans to see which would happen first.

Suddenly, the Wing Zero was moving as far away from the Deathscythe Hell as possible. The shaft of the beam scythe exploded, destroying the Deathscythe Hell's hands and destabilizing it, causing it to fall to the ground.

"_Two down."_ Heero said simply as he turned his attentions to the two new suits, already ignoring the Deathscythe Hell as Andrew fled from it with a look of terror on his face.

* * *

Heiran's expression darkened as the fight wore on. Two of his idiot pilots had fled for no apparent reason, and the three suits that were his had suffered more damage than he had thought they would. Not to mention the surprise appearance of the Wing Zero.

_I should have stuck to the original plan and let them kill him after he played his part. What the hell was I thinking to let that bastard live?_ He thought angrily.

Behind him, Quinn frowned worriedly. "You wanted me, sir?"

"Get ready. I'm going to have to recall the other three suits. They'll need repairs."

Quinn nodded uncertainly. "What about Caden and the others?"

"They'll come here. Relena and her hounds don't know about this place and they'll be too preoccupied with recovering their suits to tail after them." Heiran noticed his uncertainty. "Most of their suits have sustained a great deal of damage, so we won't have to worry about them for some time."

Quinn nodded again, this time with more certainty. "Is there anything else, sir?"

"No. You can go." Heiran waited until the Australian was gone before returning his attention to the screens. He pressed a button and one of the screens switched to the cockpit of the Heavyarms.

"What is happening?" He snapped. He frowned as he noticed Yamato jump in fear at his sudden check-in.

"_I don't know sir, but I think they added the ZERO System to all of their Gundams. Disturbing things keep happening ever since Caden…"_ He shuddered as though he didn't want to remember Caden's scream.

"Fine… as soon as the Heavyarms has been dealt substantial damage, abandon it as well."

Yamato nodded warily before Heiran turned the screen back to the warehouse's cameras.

They were just kids, but this experience in a life or death situation would definitely make them better soldiers for his future plans… if they didn't screw up and die. He frowned at the thought, pushing it away as he tried to keep his focus on the battle at hand.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Whoo! Another chapter on time! I'm so happy that I remembered! Anyways, if you're wondering why the other three enemy Gundams didn't fight as much as they could have, it's because they were concerned about damaging their Gundams too much. They were supposed to overwhelm and destroy the Sandrock and Tallgeese III, but when things started working to their disadvantage, they began to back off the fight since the primary objective was to cripple Relena's defensive forces. Plus, they had already sustained some nasty damage from the three veteran's attacks. Anyways, enjoy!


	14. Beginning of the End

Chapter 14: Beginning of the End

Despite standing on only one leg, using its thrusters to maintain its balance, the Sandrock had the Heavyarms in a stalemate. The Sandrock would have had the advantage, since both suits were forced into close-ranged combat, if it wasn't for its missing leg. One of the Heat Shotels was embedded into the shoulder joint of the Heavyarms' arm, and the Sandrock's other arm was trying to break the army knife embedded in its own elbow joint while trying to get its Heat Shotel close enough to decapitate the Heavyarms.

After a few moments, a shriek of metal on metal was heard as both suits succeeded in what they had intended on doing. The Heavyarms collapsed to the ground as the Sandrock used its remaining arm to knock it over and slash its knee joints to render it immobile.

Yamato fled just as he was instructed, and the Sandrock made no attempt to follow him because its own damage hindered any chance of pursuit. Soon afterwards, the others began to retreat.

"_Should we follow them?"_ Quatre asked as the Sandrock was supported by the Tallgeese III to stop it from falling over.

"_We're in no shape to chase them. The Wing Zero and Tallgeese III got off lucky, but the others need to be taken back to the Sanc Kingdom and repaired as soon as possible."_ Heero said calmly. Quatre nodded in understanding.

"_It looks like they got what they wanted: only two suits are fit enough to fight if they were to attack us again soon."_ Milliardo growled as they looked at the abandoned suits.

The Sandrock knelt, using its arm to keep its balance once it deactivated and Quatre jumped out, looking at the damage with a wince.

Heero and Milliardo joined him, shaking their heads. "Should we contact them to bring mobile suit transports and anti-fire planes?" Quatre asked as they watched the inferno burn out of control.

"I've already tried to contact them. I don't know where they are." Milliardo said as he frowned at the fire.

Heero's eyes narrowed as he looked up at the sky. "It looks as though we don't need to contact them."

As the other two looked, a procession of planes became visible in the sky.

A small group of planes broke off and began dumping water on the fires as the other seven planes circled around the clearing before landing close to the Gundams.

"Are you ready to be shot down?" Quatre asked both men, knowing Heero and Milliardo would get most of Relena's fury.

"Are you?" Heero replied as the lead plane's door opened to allow Relena, the rest of the Defence Council, and the other three Gundam pilots off.

They could hear Duo's annoyed yells as he saw the condition of his suit, and Wufei was just as loud but angrier as he looked over his Gundam.

Trowa merely shook his head as he examined the Heavyarms.

"They're going to kill us." Heero commented casually as the others continued towards them. The other two could only nod in agreement as they took note of the group's expressions.

"Did you three really have to do that much damage to them? We don't have any mass produced suits to use as a backup." Noin said with a frown.

"We wouldn't have had to take such drastic measures if it weren't for those Luxembourg fools." Milliardo growled.

"We were forced to disable them to prevent the pilots from doing any more damage." Heero said coolly.

Noin rolled her eyes as though she knew that was what they would say.

Une sighed as the other pilots joined them. "The only one we can get up and running in a reasonable time is the Deathscythe Hell, because we were worried about the shaft exploding."

"So the backup parts came in?" Milliardo asked in surprise.

Une nodded. "About an hour ago."

"So what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Wufei snapped as he glared at the disabled Altron.

"First, we'll deal with repairing the three suits that can be repaired quickly. I have a feeling that spare parts have already been ordered for the rest." Milliardo said coolly as he glanced at Noin, who nodded.

"We had a feeling it wasn't going to be easy for you, so we had them ordered before we left."

"We learned some things that Yaturi probably wanted kept secret, though." Quatre said grimly.

"What's that?" Trowa asked worriedly.

"They used our suits to their advantage. It wasn't three on two for long. There were three other suits in the warehouse. If Heero hadn't shown up when he did…" Quatre shook his head.

"Only three?" Sally asked with a concerned frown.

"It wouldn't surprise me if he had two warehouses. Yaturi's not exactly the type to slip up easily. This one must have been a trap in order to leave the ESUN defenceless." Heero explained coolly.

Quatre nodded in reluctant agreement. "He's right. We walked right into a trap. Although, I don't think any of them expected Heero to show up."

"I know we didn't." Milliardo said as he shot a guarded look at Heero, who ignored it.

"When we take them back to the hangar, we'll have to work quickly in order to get at least these three up and running again before Heiran has a chance to recover." Trowa said as he kept his expression neutral, even though his voice was strained from the effort of keeping his annoyance in check.

"At least his pilots left with some wounds of their own to deal with. That should give us a bit of time to deal with our own suits." Quatre admitted as he looked at the Sandrock with a wince.

The others nodded in reluctant agreement before Milliardo ordered them to help with the loading of their Gundams.

Just as the others separated and headed for their machines, a slap could barely be heard over the roar of the planes' engines.

Everyone turned to see Relena glaring angrily up at Heero, who stared down at her in surprise as he took a hand away from his face.

"That's for going against my orders to stay at headquarters!" She yelled at him.

Heero remained silent as the others quickly decided to return to what they had been planning to do.

Relena took a deep breath to try and calm herself before going on. "I'm grateful you did, it was obvious they couldn't handle the situation on their own… but you still went against my orders. What would have happened if you had reopened your wound? We need you alive, and healthy. Every time you keep going your own way, you run the risk of extending your recovery time." She said with a tremble of suppressed anger and frustration in her voice.

"I know." He said as he closed his eyes and looked away.

"Then why do you keep doing it? The others are just as capable as you are. One of the others could have piloted the Wing Zero to help them. You didn't have to go yourself."

Heero shrugged but remained silent.

Relena shook her head in frustration. "Go help load up the Gundams. I'll figure out what to do about your disobedience later." She said with an exasperated tone and a dismissive wave of her hand.

Heero nodded before walking towards the Wing Zero.

Sally walked up with a concerned frown. "Is everything okay?"

Relena shook her head. "I think I've been giving them too free of a rein since they returned. I always let them do their own thing, and I think Heero's actions finally pushed that leniency over the edge."

Sally shook her head. "It's not that. He was just doing what he felt was right. He didn't want to sit on the sidelines and watch as the safety of the ESUN and, more importantly, you are put at risk."

Relena sighed. "I know… I just wish he'd think about his own safety sometimes." She frowned as Sally laughed.

"I'm sorry, but he'll always put your life before his. You know that."

Relena rolled her eyes. "Anyways, why are you here?"

"Oh yes, the fires are mostly out now and the fire planes are returning to the Sanc Kingdom. Luxembourg's fire crews are on their way to deal with the remnants."

"That's good."

Sally nodded. "Come on, let's go. We'll have to work hard in order to get some semblance of a defence up, just in case Heiran decides to strike."

Relena sighed and nodded as she allowed Sally to steer her back towards the personnel plane.

* * *

As soon as the Gundams were returned to the hangar in Relena's mansion, everyone began to work on repairing the Deathscythe Hell, Wing Zero and Tallgeese III; even Relena tried to help as much as she could.

Finally, after a week of non-stop work, the three suits were fully repaired.

Relena sighed in exhaustion as she stood outside the hangar, stretching and watching the sun rise as the others began shifting their attentions to the more seriously damaged Gundams.

Noin hid a yawn behind her hand as she stood beside Relena, giving her a rag to clear away the stains on her face. "Mariemaia says everything's going well at the ESUN."

Relena nodded. "I feel bad about letting her do all the work."

Noin smiled slightly. "Don't worry. She's enjoying herself. She also told me to tell you that you should rest. In fact, she was tempted to make it an order just to see if you would obey it."

Relena rolled her eyes. "I think the girl is getting a little too power hungry."

Noin chuckled in amusement. "She does have a good point though. You need to rest."

Relena frowned at her. "I won't rest unless the others do."

"Then shall I make it an order that everyone's to take today off?" Noin asked as she glanced knowingly at Relena.

Relena sighed in defeat, knowing Noin would pressure her into agreeing. She nodded reluctantly. "By my orders, today is to be a rest day. The others aren't going to be happy about it, but…"

Noin didn't wait for her to say any more as she quickly turned and walked back into the hangar to tell the others about Relena's decision.

Relena was surprised when she didn't hear any arguments from any of the severely damaged Gundam's pilots.

They simply nodded as they listened to Noin, and then left the hangar after clearing everything away.

Relena sighed in relief before Hilde came and put a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, you're exhausted." She said as she steered Relena easily towards the mansion's walkway. "I'm surprised you were able to help. I didn't think you knew anything about mobile suit mechanics."

Relena blushed in embarrassment. "I secretly studied while the Gundams were being rebuilt. It wasn't much, but it was enough to make me useful."

Hilde smirked in amusement. "That's great. I think you surprised the hell out of the guys though."

Relena laughed. "I think so too…" She frowned in thought. "What about those preparations?"

"Done… in fact, we can do it today."

Relena nodded. "Do it, but don't let anyone know. You're in charge since you aren't among those who were repairing the Gundams."

Hilde nodded in understanding. "Don't worry. Leave everything to me."

Relena smiled. "Thank you Hilde. I'm glad you decided to come keep a close eye on Duo."

Hilde threw her head back and laughed.

After a few moments, Relena joined her in laughter for a few moments before sighing as they reached her room.

"Be careful, Hilde, don't get caught."

Hilde rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about me. I learned from the best."

Relena nodded in understanding as they parted ways, but she watched as Hilde turned a nearby corner with a worried frown. "I know… but still…" She said quietly as she opened the door to her room

Before she could enter her room, she saw Milliardo running towards her. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"We have trouble." He growled angrily as he stopped beside her.

Relena frowned. "What?"

He looked around carefully before answering. "Luxembourg wants Heero Yuy and the Wing Zero turned over to their custody immediately."

Relena cursed angrily under her breath, generating a look of surprise from Milliardo.

She blushed in embarrassment. "I've been hanging around Duo too long." She admitted before she regained her composure.

"Let me guess: because of his actions when we were retrieving our other Gundams?"

Milliardo nodded. "We were only given permission for the Tallgeese III and the Sandrock to enter and fight in their territory…"

"…So Heero's presence was considered a hostile act against the independent nation of Luxembourg?" Relena asked with a slight bit of a growl in her tone. She took a deep breath to try and calm herself down: a week with little rest and all of the stress that was piling up on her would kill her if she didn't try to control it now.

Milliardo nodded again. "I wanted to let you know before it became public knowledge. So what are we going to do?"

Relena sighed in defeat, completely unsure of what to do. "Honestly, Milliardo… I don't know."

"I'll go quietly." Relena and Milliardo both jumped as Heero walked around the corner.

"So you were listening?" Milliardo asked as he removed his hand from his gun, which he had instinctively gone for.

Heero nodded as he stood before them and folded his arms across his chest. "Yaturi must have had a hard time convincing the Luxembourg officials to take this step, but it definitely has his hand in it. I'll go quietly with the Wing Zero, that way he can't cause you any more official trouble."

"This is part of Yaturi's plan, then? He must be ready to launch an attack if they're asking for the Wing Zero." Milliardo growled in anger.

Heero nodded grimly as he looked at the older pilot. "As soon as I catch wind of his strike, I'll be on my way as fast as the Wing Zero can fly… even if I have to kill all of my guards to do it."

Relena shivered at his icy tone, but Milliardo nodded in acceptance.

"I must admit, I'm glad we're the ones who are allowed to hold your leash…" Heero smirked coldly and received an equally cold smile in return from Milliardo.

"Please be careful, Heero. I really wish there was some way to avoid this, but since there doesn't seem to be any…" Relena said softly.

Heero's expression softened a bit as he looked down at her. "Don't worry, I'll be fine… you're the one who should be careful. I have a feeling he'll have all of his suits ready for combat, and two Gundams won't be enough to protect the headquarters."

Relena nodded gratefully at his surprisingly gentle tone.

"Go now before Luxembourg thinks we're going to refuse. We don't want to see what will happen if they assume that." Milliardo ordered.

Heero inclined his head slightly before walking away quickly.

"Did he just bow?" Milliardo asked incredulously after a few moments of surprised silence.

"That makes me worried… what is he going to do?" Relena asked in concern.

Milliardo shook his head. "All I know is that I should probably be feeling sorry for the Luxembourg goons who will be responsible for his imprisonment… but for some reason I just can't bring myself to." He said wryly, causing Relena to look up at him in confusion. "He has that wild look in his eye… you remember… the one he had back during the Eve Wars."

Relena paled in fear as she turned to go after Heero.

Milliardo grabbed her arm with an iron grip to stop her. "Don't. It's too late. Besides, we need that ferocity to stand a chance against Yaturi and those former rookies. I just hope the others find it again before it's too late for the ESUN…"

Relena stared up at him for a few moments before nodding in reluctant agreement.

"Go to bed. You should be just as exhausted as the rest of us."

"Only as long as the rest of you are…"

Milliardo nodded. "I was going to before that announcement came in. I'll be going now."

Relena nodded as he released her arm, patting her comfortingly on the shoulder before walking away.

Relena sighed and entered her room. She collapsed onto her bed without even bothering to get changed. "Heero… don't do anything stupid…" She muttered into her pillows before closing her eyes. As a measure of her exhaustion, she fell asleep almost immediately.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Another chapter done! Whoo! Looks like things are beginning to look bad for the heroes, eh? What will happen? I'm not telling. =P Enjoy anyways!


	15. the Battle for Control

Chapter 15: The Battle for Control

Evening fell, casting shadows in Mariemaia's office at the ESUN headquarters. She sighed as she finished setting aside more papers that demanded Relena's signature and wouldn't take hers.

"Those morons are so stubborn." She muttered under her breath in frustration. She blinked in surprise as the door opened to reveal Relena. "Relena! What are you doing here? Noin informed me that it was a rest day for everyone!" Mariemaia said as she stood.

Relena raised her hand, making Mariemaia sit back down. "I'm only here to check up on things. Besides, it's the evening now." She said with a sly smile.

Mariemaia rolled her eyes as Relena sat across from her.

"So how have things been?"

"They've been interesting… I assume you were notified about Luxembourg's demands?"

Relena nodded grimly as though wishing she could forget them.

"He's arrived safely and without incident. They've taken him into their custody and the Wing Zero is locked up."

Relena sighed in relief. "I'm glad he hasn't done anything rash."

Mariemaia frowned in concern. "Why? Did he say he was going to do something?"

Relena shook her head. "No, but… this is Heero we're talking about."

Mariemaia nodded in understanding. "These require your attention tomorrow." Mariemaia said as she rested a hand on the stack of papers.

Relena groaned as she stared at it. "How does Quatre deal with this stuff?" She asked in exasperation.

As though it was a summons, Quatre burst into the room, panting in exhaustion as though he had been running hard.

Relena and Mariemaia jumped up in concern. "What's wrong?"

"They're coming! We need to evacuate the headquarters!"

Mariemaia and Relena paled in shock.

"The other employees are already being evacuated, so we need to go now!" Quatre said as Mariemaia came around the desk.

"How did you find out?"

"The border security scanners picked up mobile suits entering Sanc Kingdom land space. They're moving quickly and will be here soon!" He said as he grabbed Mariemaia and Relena's arms and dragged them from the office, surprising both of them with the strength he was exhibiting.

"What about-?"

"Duo and Milliardo are already standing by in defensive positions." He interrupted Relena's question as they passed other people fleeing the headquarters.

Mariemaia and Relena had no choice but to let Quatre drag them through the hallways, finally turning off into an empty hallway.

"Where are we going?" Relena asked worriedly.

"The secret exit… Alexander is already waiting nearby with the car." He answered quickly.

They came upon a dead end, but Quatre didn't slow down as he let go of their arms and threw his shoulder roughly into the centre part of the wall. The wall gave way to reveal the darkening outside and Relena's car waiting with its back doors open.

Quatre grabbed Relena and Mariemaia again and shoved them roughly into the car, which began to drive as soon as they were in. Quatre leaped in and shut the door as the car picked up speed and drove away quickly.

* * *

Duo watched the evacuation of the headquarters worriedly, with quick glances at his radar, making certain that the enemy didn't sneak up on them.

"_How's it going?"_ Milliardo asked as the Tallgeese III stood on the other end of the building.

"I don't see… There they are! All right Quatre!" Duo cheered as he watched Quatre drag Relena and Mariemaia to safety.

"_Relena and Mariemaia are safe?"_

"Yeah, don't worry. Quatre practically threw them into the car. Also, that lead foot that Alexander's developed over the years has come in handy."

Milliardo's image rolled his eyes. _"What about the rest?"_

"The flood of people has slowed down. The parking lot is almost cleared out too. By the time they get here, the headquarters will be cleared."

"_That's great. I've already received a report that the evacuation of Relena's home is complete."_

Duo sighed in relief as the Deathscythe Hell joined the Tallgeese III in watching the direction of Luxembourg's border.

"Let's just hope we can give them some trouble at least." Duo muttered as he glanced at the sun setting, wincing at how low in the sky it was. It was going to be dark by the time they arrived, which would cause visibility problems for them. He was secretly annoyed that they were using the pilots' old tactics against them, but kept it from showing.

"I'm activating the Hyper Jammers… that should give us a bit of an advantage." Duo informed Milliardo as he touched the controls for the Hyper Jammers, vanishing from the Tallgeese III's view.

"_That's fine; at least you're not going to charge in there out in the open like a suicidal fool."_

"Oh, you mean like you?" Duo smirked at Milliardo's sharp look before Milliardo shook his head.

"_I'll have to remember to choose my words more carefully around you."_

Duo chuckled a bit before the amusement faded as he checked the sun again.

Half an hour passed before the Epyon came into their radar range, followed quickly by the others.

"Here we go…" Duo growled under his breath. Unseen thanks to the Hyper Jammers, the Deathscythe Hell rested its beam scythe on its shoulder with the blade pointing towards the sky.

"_Everyone's safely away from here so don't hold back."_ Milliardo growled.

"Like they'd give us a choice…" Duo scoffed grimly.

The Tallgeese III's dobergun was attached to the headquarters' power source to avoid unnecessary drainage to its own power.

"_Be ready."_

Duo nodded as the dobergun charged.

The lights that were left on in the ESUN building began to fade out until the building was completely dark. As the enemy Gundams began to come into their sights, the dobergun was unleashed, sending a powerful blast at them and breaking up their charge. As the dobergun's blast subsided, the Tallgeese III threw it aside and charged at the incoming suits while the Deathscythe Hell snuck around them.

"I guess we'll see each other in hell, hm?" Duo asked with a grimace as they saw all of their enemies.

"_I guess so…"_ Milliardo replied as the Epyon and the Tallgeese III collided, already trading blows before the rest of the suits arrived.

* * *

"_They only have the Tallgeese III up and running? I figured they would have at least gotten one of the other suits up and running. The damage to some of them couldn't have been that bad, could it?"_ Quinn asked in surprise as Caden grumbled about the Tallgeese III's successful attempt to break up their attack formation.

Andrew shook his head as he looked around warily. Something about what Quinn said was bugging him: how could they only have had the Wing Zero and the Tallgeese III as their defence? They had a week to try and focus on getting at least one of the other suits ready. He paled as a certain black suit flashed in his mind, but before he could warn them, the Deathscythe Hell appeared behind them.

The beam scythe swung hard but all it was able to do was deeply gouge several of the enemy suit's backs, although he did manage to disable their thrusters.

"_Damn! I missed!"_ Duo snarled at the affected suits retaliated, removing any chance of the Deathscythe Hell being able to go back into hiding.

"_You were trying to slice him in half, right?"_ Milliardo asked as the Tallgeese III dodged an attack from one of the others.

"_Yeah but there's too many of these damn idiots clustered together… no matter what I would have tried, my swing would have been screwed up by their Gundanium, which I have no doubt is what those damn things are made of."_

"_At least you disabled some of their thrusters. It will help us have a speed advantage against them. Now get a hold of yourself before they capitalize on your emotional state."_ Milliardo ordered as the Tallgeese III used its heat rod to attract the attention of the other enemy suits to pull some pressure off the Deathscythe Hell.

"_I know, I know…"_ Duo admitted with a much calmer voice as the Deathscythe Hell backed away to avoid being surrounded by the remaining suits.

* * *

"_All I can hope is that Luxembourg's little toys can keep the Wing Zero from coming to their aid before we finish them off."_ Marco said in concern as the Tallgeese III dodged his attack and responded with one of its own, which forced him to back off to avoid running right into it.

Heiran appeared on their monitors.

"_Sir, only Caden, Yamato, Kareem, Michael and I still have our thrusters. They got the Deathscythe Hell up and running and he surprised us."_ Andrew admitted before Heiran could say anything.

Heiran scowled in annoyance at being interrupted before he could even ask, but decided to overlook it in light of the damages Andrew had just reported.

"_Andrew, Yamato and Kareem, when I tell you… you will go and attack Relena's manor. The other Gundams are venerable and you three should be enough to destroy them in that state. The rest of you will destroy the ESUN headquarters and those two suits. Don't let them escape alive."_ He warned icily.

The three pilots who were named nodded in understanding.

"_Don't worry, sir. We'll make sure to blow them to pieces."_ Caden growled as the Epyon and the Tallgeese III continued to battle heat rod against heat rod.

"_Be sure you do. I've instructed Luxembourg to try and provoke Heero into doing something they can kill him for, but I hear they're having a hard time getting a rise out of him."_ Heiran said with a frown.

"_So, basically you're warning us to be careful in case he gets away?"_ Quinn asked warily.

Heiran nodded. _"Remember to keep the Deathscythe Hell from activating its cloaking devices again. We can't afford to let them get any more advantages."_ He snapped. _"Now you three go before they have a chance to do something to the Gundams!"_

Without waiting for them to respond, he vanished.

"_Come on, Yamato, Kareem. You heard him."_ Andrew said reluctantly as the other suits dove in to block the Deathscythe Hell to prevent it from following them as they flew towards Relena's manor.

Duo's frustration was evident from the reckless swings the Deathscythe Hell made against them with its beam scythe.

"_Keep the pressure on him so he can't go into his stealth form."_ Caden ordered as the Epyon and the Tallgeese III destroyed each other's heat rods, forcing them to bring out their beam sabres.

The others nodded impatiently, already knowing that would be a fatal mistake if they did, as they kept the two Gundams separated from each other and at a clear disadvantage as the headquarters of the ESUN began to crumble from the fighting.

* * *

Relena ran into the control room of a hidden underground bunker near the ocean, a safe distance away from the ESUN headquarters.

"Is everyone all right?" She asked worriedly as Quatre and Mariemaia followed her in.

Hilde nodded. "Everyone got clear before they arrived. Duo and Milliardo are having a hard time, but they're still holding their own for now…"

Trowa shook his head in amazement. "I can't believe you had this planned."

Relena blushed in embarrassment. "Well, I knew Heiran would try something in desperation if he didn't get what he wanted. I asked Hilde, Sally, and Une to come up with a contingency plan just in case. This is what they came up with."

"What about the damaged Gundams?" Quatre asked worriedly.

"They were brought here. Decoys were set up just in case."

"It's a good thing we did that. Three of them broke off and are attacking the manor as we speak." Sally said in concern as she brought up a smaller screen on the large screen that was currently filled with the images from the battle at the ESUN headquarters.

Everyone's expressions were grim as they watched Andrew, Yamato and Kareem destroy the manor and the decoy Gundams.

When the last decoy fell, Sally shook her head and dismissed the small screen.

Noin sat at the end with a set of earphones and listening intently to something as a smile began to form. "Well now… just what I've come to expect from him…"

"What is it?" Wufei asked in curiosity from his corner of the control room.

Noin ignored him as she brought up a communication screen.

Duo and Milliardo appeared with both men wearing identical expressions of concentration.

"How long can you two hold out?" She asked worriedly.

"_We're hanging on just fine. Are those other three coming back?"_ Milliardo growled.

"Unfortunately, they will be. They destroyed the mansion and some decoys we had set up. But I'm bringing good news: keep an eye on the direction those nine came from." She said with a sly smirk.

Duo frowned for a few moments. _"What the hell are you…?"_ His eyes widened as he realized what she meant and suddenly his face broke into a malicious grin. _"Thanks for the heads up. We'll keep these guys busy so they don't see it coming."_

"_Unless Heiran warns them… keep an eye on things and tell us if something happens."_ Milliardo growled in annoyance even though he was smiling too.

Noin nodded and dismissed their images.

"I just hope Heiran doesn't do anything to force our hand…" Relena said worriedly as she stood behind the women at the control panel.

The others nodded in agreement as they continued to watch the almost one-sided battle while the ESUN Headquarters crumbled beneath them.

* * *

"_With these three idiots keeping up the pressure on me, I can't re-activate the Hyper Jammers!"_ Duo growled as the Deathscythe Hell spun its scythe in order to block the incoming attacks from the other Gundams.

"_I wish I could help you out, but it's three on one over here too. And when those other three come back…"_

"_I know, I know. I just hope the Wing Zero gets here faster than they did. If he doesn't, I'm worried he'll find nothing but scrap metal."_

Milliardo nodded in understanding as the Tallgeese III was forced to back up, destroying more of the headquarters, to avoid a simultaneous attack from all three Gundams that were fighting him.

"_I think we can consider headquarters a lost cause."_ Milliardo growled in annoyance as the Tallgeese III rammed into the Epyon, forcing the other two to back off to avoid hitting their ally. _"I think we have one advantage over them."_

"_What's that?"_

"_They're afraid to attack if we take one of their own as a shield."_ Milliardo said as the Tallgeese III grabbed the Epyon and hung on to it from behind, preventing it from moving.

"_Hah! You're kidding! That just proves they're still rookies!"_ Duo said gleefully as the Deathscythe Hell followed Milliardo's example and grabbed Michael's Gundam.

The enemy Gundams froze as the Deathscythe Hell and the Tallgeese III regrouped a safe distance away from them while still holding the Epyon and Michael's Gundam hostage.

"_I must confess… if anyone was willing to fire on their own, I figured it would be these guys…"_ Milliardo admitted with a frown.

Duo nodded as his eyes narrowed. _"If it were us, we'd fire on the enemy no matter what stunt they tried to pull. Although I'll admit, this is pretty low, especially for us."_

Milliardo cringed in agreement. _"I agree… but a soldier makes use of anything in a life or death situation… and we're in one right now."_

Duo rolled his eyes in response. _"So what should we do? They're fighting our restraints pretty hard."_

The Deathscythe Hell tightened its grip on Michael's Gundam's arms to prevent it from breaking free.

"_Destroy their thrusters once we let them go. We'll have to move fast, but getting rid of their weapons would be impossible with the way we've got them."_

Duo nodded in understanding. _"On three?"_

Milliardo nodded. _"On three… one… two… three!"_

With their experienced pilots' reflexes, the two Gundams threw their captives away from them and slashed at them with their weapons, separating the thrusters from the Gundams.

The Tallgeese III and the Deathscythe Hell quickly took advantage of their reduced speed by getting away from them as fast as possible.

As soon as they were away, the others split up and attacked them.

"_Damn they're stubborn!"_ Duo growled as he caught sight of the three other suits returning. _"Incoming!"_ He warned Milliardo as they destroyed what remained of the headquarters in their attempt to reach both Gundams.

Suddenly, a powerful blast erupted from behind the Tallgeese III and the Deathscythe Hell, forcing the enemy Gundams to scatter.

"_Damn you cut that close!"_ Duo yelled as the Wing Zero stood between them as it dropped the twin buster rifle.

"_How are your suits holding up?"_ Heero asked in concern as the enemy Gundams began to recover.

"_They're barely holding up… I think we may be on the verge of a really, really nasty defeat here."_ Duo replied grimly as they stood ready to defend themselves against the enemy Gundams.

"_Humph. It's too bad I had to fight my way out of Luxembourg, or I could have been more help to you two. My beam sabre was damaged so it's no longer functioning and that was the last shot I could get out of the twin buster rifle."_

"_Why am I not surprised that Luxembourg was armed?"_ Milliardo growled as they were surrounded by the nine other Gundams.

"_Some help you were. Should we start saying our goodbyes?"_ Duo asked grimly.

"_Probably…"_ Heero said casually as he looked around at their enemies.

"_I guess I'll be seeing you two on the other side then… which is too bad… because you two are the last people on Earth that I want to die with."_ Milliardo said with a bitter smile.

"_Ouch. I'm hurt!"_ Duo said sarcastically as he tried to get into contact with the bunker, while watching the enemy suits warily.

Milliardo and Heero chuckled in grim amusement as the enemy suits raised their weapons against them…

* * *

**Author's Notes**: Nothing much really, just a reminder to everyone who has read this fanfic before to avoid spoilers in the reviews, especially for the next few chapters.


	16. the ESUN Falls

Chapter 16: The ESUN Falls

Relena frowned in concern as the Wing Zero's arrival didn't seem to help their situation.

"Oh great… we've got trouble…" Noin growled as she brought up a small screen.

The others gathered around her as Heiran appeared on the small screen.

"_People of the Earth Sphere, I am Heiran Yaturi."_ His voice echoed in the deathly quiet control room as everyone glared at his image.

"_I stand before you today to announce the end of the ESUN. However, I assure you that it is no great loss. Despite their outward appearances, the ESUN has harboured many dangerous secrets that they've kept from the public. A recent example was the death of Gundam pilot Heero Yuy. The ESUN carried on a false claim that he had died, however I can confirm that he is very much alive."_

Relena hissed at his image in anger. "Damn that man!"

For once, nobody acted surprised by her behaviour. They all glared at Heiran as he continued.

"_They perpetuated the lie in order to use Mr. Yuy's skills to discredit myself and my company. He was also part of a hostile attack on the independent nation of Luxembourg, not once, but twice! It appears as though the ESUN doesn't want any nation to be independent. They've become just like the Romefeller Foundation and the Earth Sphere Alliance: corrupted by their own power!"_

"He's really twisting the truth to his benefit, isn't he?" Trowa asked icily. The others nodded grimly.

"Not to mention insulting the ESUN by comparing it to those other two factions…" Hilde said with a disgusted shake of her head.

"Is it me, or have those suits not moved since they surrounded Heero and the others?" Wufei asked in concern.

"He's going to use them as an example!" Mariemaia realized with shock.

"That would make taking over easier, if ESUN loyalists see the Gundams destroyed with ease…" Une said grimly.

"With no hope of anyone being able to stop him, the people will give in to his control easier. And Heiran would be the only one with the capability to make Gundams, or so the Earth Sphere will be made to think…" Quatre said as he shook his head in disgust.

"_I have procured surveillance footage from the second attack on Luxembourg, which according to my sources just happened a short time ago."_

"Oh no… what did Heero do to escape…?" Relena asked herself in fear.

"Humph, just a few minutes ago we were happy that he escaped, but now his escape may just cost us what little standing we had left with the people of the Earth Sphere." Wufei growled.

The others reluctantly nodded in agreement as Heiran vanished from the screen, only to be replaced by an image that made them shake their heads in defeat.

* * *

The Wing Zero walked out of a building that was completely engulfed in flames, destroying something off screen as it walked. The angle of the camera made the Wing Zero a black figure in front of the flames, with only the beam sabre, which suddenly was deactivated through the magic of video editing, and its eyes giving off any light from it.

Relena couldn't help but shudder as the image cut out just as the Wing Zero transformed.

"Well, he certainly knows how to manipulate the camera well…" Sally said as she suppressed her own shudder.

"That will turn the entire Earth Sphere against us easily…" Trowa said with a shake of his head as Heiran reappeared.

"_As you can see from that footage, the Wing Zero destroyed a facility full of people. The last report I heard tallied the death toll at around two hundred, but I'm sure there will be more. I am merely showing you this to remind you what kind of people these Gundam pilot pets of Relena's can be."_

"Pets? That bastard insulted us!" Wufei snapped.

"Well, we are piloting our Gundams on behalf of Relena, and we do claim loyalty to her… although the 'pets' remark was a bit much." Trowa said with an irritated frown.

Relena was sorely tempted to throw something at the screen in anger, but she knew it wouldn't do any good, so she was forced to keep a white-knuckled grip on her skirt instead.

"_I am relinquishing control to the individual nations, but I will still maintain control of the Earth Sphere. Also, I have two announcements to make in light of the new situation the Earth Sphere is facing."_

Everyone tensed as Noin quickly tried to raise one of the pilots who were staring down their potential deaths.

"_The first is a bounty. I will pay the amount listed on the screen below me for the capture of these people."_ His face disappeared again as the images of several people appeared, with a staggering amount of money underneath the rows of images.

"The ESUN top brass…" Sally said in shock.

"The Maganacs are there too!" Quatre moaned as he noticed a group image of the Maganacs.

"Heiran seems to really have it in for you, Quatre… I don't see any of our other contacts on there." Trowa said in concern.

"And I can only blame myself for it…" Quatre muttered as he tried to avoid looking at the picture of the men who had pledged their life to him.

Hilde shook her head in disbelief as she finished looking through the pictures. "I'm the only one in this room that's not on that bounty list. I don't know whether that can be used to our advantage or not…"

"We're all on there, though." Wufei commented as he pointed to the first row, which had all of their pictures on it.

"I notice Heero, Duo and Milliardo are missing too…" Une said grimly.

"And they haven't even bothered trying to escape…" Hilde said anxiously.

Relena wrapped an arm around Hilde's shoulders, trying to comfort the young woman even though she was just as anxious as Hilde.

* * *

"I've got Duo!" Noin said in relief as Duo's image appeared beneath the images of the ESUN officials, as Heiran talked about memorizing their faces and wanting the people brought to him alive.

"_What's up?"_ He asked casually, as though he didn't seem to notice the three weapons pointing directly at the Deathscythe Hell.

"Get out of there, now!" Noin ordered. She was taken aback when Duo shook his head.

"_Sorry, running ain't an option now. Besides, they'd have us dead before we got past them. Our Gundams have taken quite a beating: fighting our way out isn't possible."_

They stared in shock at him as he stretched as far as the cockpit would allow and rested his hands behind his head.

"_So we're just sitting back and relaxing until they're ready to kill us."_ He said casually.

"No!" Hilde yelled in fear.

Duo grimaced slightly before shaking his head. _"We're entrusting the peace and security of millions of people in your hands. Make sure to find some space for us in the first cemetery you come across. Sorry about this guys."_ He said before the screen went dark.

Everyone stared horrified at the blank screen.

"How can they accept it so calmly…?" Alexander asked.

Suddenly, Quatre burst out laughing, causing everyone to look at him in shock.

"Have you lost it, Quatre?" Wufei growled in annoyance as Quatre sat at an empty control seat and began furiously working on the control panel.

"No, I haven't. At least I hope I haven't…" He admitted as he paused and stared at the screen thoughtfully for a few moments before shaking his head and resuming his work.

"What are you talking about?" Relena demanded, but before Quatre could answer, Heiran resumed his speech.

"_And now, it's time for the second announcement."_ He said icily, causing everyone to stare at the screen warily.

"_My soldiers have cornered the Wing Zero, Deathscythe Hell and the Tallgeese III. They are simply waiting for me to give the command, and then the flagship Gundams of the ESUN will be completely annihilated. They are the only Gundams to remain intact… but that won't be the case for much longer…"_

"Or so he thinks…" Trowa said with a smirk, which quickly faded as Heiran continued.

"_If Relena Peacecraft and her little entourage are watching this, wherever they scurried away to, I hope you enjoy the show as your beloved brother and loyal pets are killed right before your eyes."_ He said with a mocking tone.

Heiran raised his hand, and then lowered it in a slicing motion.

As he did, the small screen became a mirror image of the larger screen, showing the three Gundams surrounded by Heiran's suits.

Heiran's Gundams shifted as their weapons began to build up energy.

Everyone in the control room watched with fearful expressions and bated breath until the weapons discharged, resulting in a massive explosion that made the screens turn to static.

Sally reluctantly turned off the large screen as the small screen turned back to Heiran, who was wearing a cold smirk of satisfaction.

"_Once all of the people named in the bounty have been rounded up and dealt with, the ESUN will become simply a memory. I wish all of you good luck in hunting them down."_

"That was too large of an explosion for them to have made it out of there alive…" Trowa muttered quietly with a shake of his head.

Wufei, Sally, Noin and Une nodded reluctantly in agreement as Relena closed her eyes and tried to wipe out the memory of what had just happened, clinging to Hilde as though the other woman was the only thing keeping her from falling over; of course she knew she was the same crutch for Hilde from the way she returned her grip.

* * *

As Heiran began talking about what he was going to do for the Earth Sphere, the others turned their attentions back to Quatre, who was sitting back with an amused smile.

"So will you tell us what the hell you find so amusing? The others are dead and we're stuck in hiding!" Wufei snapped angrily.

Quatre shrugged. "They aren't dead. At least, I hope I understood Duo right…" A concerned frown appeared on his face for a few moments before he shook his head dismissively.

"What do you mean?" Trowa asked curiously.

"Duo said three words that made me realize what they were planning: peace, million and space. At least, as long as I understood his intentions right…" Quatre said worriedly.

"What's so special about them?" Sally asked in confusion.

Noin's eyes widened. "Putting 'peace' and 'million' together… you don't mean… Peacemillion? The ship?" She demanded hopefully as she looked at Quatre.

Quatre nodded. "The Sweepers scavenged what remained of it and rebuilt it after the destruction of the Libra. They had intended to use it as a base of operations for their space unit, but Relena gave them land on a central colony with easy access to all of the other colonies, so they had no use for it. I bought it to use as a supply vessel, but it's just been sitting right outside my home colony with the Hyper Jammers activated because I haven't had need of it. Duo would have known about the Peacemillion because of his work with the Sweepers. Nobody else knows about it, so I'm sure Duo will be leading Heero and Milliardo there, if they made it out of the explosion in time…" He said with concern.

"I guess that means we're heading for space, then?" Une asked as she looked at Relena.

Relena nodded. "We can't stay here, so yes, space will have to be our next destination… but how?"

"I've already taken care of that." Quatre said with a satisfied grin. "Howard's fleeing with the Earth Sweepers unit to join their space unit. Apparently he got on the wrong side of Heiran and is worried that he'll set his sights on the Sweepers next. He says if we can make it to their headquarters in two days, we can come with them."

"All right, everyone, you heard the man. We don't have to listen to this windbag anymore." Noin said as she shut off Heiran's screen.

The others nodded in agreement as they began to leave the control room and make preparations for their flight to space.

* * *

When the cameras were shut off and the crews gone, Heiran scowled in irritation for a few moments before Caden's image appeared on a portable screen.

"Well?" Heiran asked calmly.

Caden shrugged uncertainly. _"There's a lot of debris, but we haven't found any bodies. The explosion was really big, even our Gundams got scorched. Their bodies may have been completely destroyed."_

Heiran nodded in understanding. "What about the ones at the manor?"

"_Andrew's gone to do a more thorough examination, but it looks as though they were the genuine article. I doubt they had any time to move them."_

Heiran nodded again. "Fine… come back to Luxembourg, they're sending a cleanup team in to deal with the mess."

Caden scowled quickly before he managed to school his expression.

Heiran frowned in anger. "Do not dare considering disobeying me, boy… I want those Gundams back here so they can be repaired. I don't trust Relena and the others to just sit by idly while the Earth Sphere falls neatly into my lap."

Caden paled slightly in fear from his icy tone.

"You know better than anyone how dangerous they are. If we don't prepare ourselves, they could bring the ESUN back to life from under us no matter what I try to do to discredit them. After all, Relena has a very strong reputation with the people… all it would take would be her saying the right word, and all of what we've done will fall apart with ease." He growled.

Caden nodded reluctantly. _"Yes sir. I'll relay the message to everyone."_

"Good." Caden's image vanished and Heiran put the portable screen away.

He sighed as he rubbed his temples in frustration. "Something seems off about the situation…" He muttered. "It was far too easy to dispose of those three… Why didn't they try to run? What does Relena Peacecraft have up her sleeve?" He shook his head to dismiss the thought as he left the room.

He had the higher ups of the former ESUN right where he wanted them: scrambling around and trying to hide like the vermin they were. Of course, that would soon change… he had offered the public so much money that he wouldn't be surprised if their own families turned them in. That thought brought a smile to his face as he went to meet with the Luxembourg leaders.

They were upset that Heero had destroyed all of the mobile suits he had given them as an incentive to turn against the ESUN. Their complaints would soon be rectified, because he was going to make sure the information for the NJD cancellers was put to good use…

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yes, the Peacemillion is back. Why wouldn't I have such an awesome ship in my story? I liked it, it was a cool ship.


	17. Flight to Space

Chapter 17: Flight to Space

Howard smirked as he stood in front of the gates to the Sweeper's compound, watching three large transports coming towards him.

"Humph… I was starting to get worried…" He muttered before waving the transports to a stop. He chuckled as a black-haired Quatre leaned out of the driver's seat of the first transport.

"Nice disguise." He said in amusement.

Quatre chuckled. "It's the best we could do on such short notice, but better than anything we've done before."

A red-haired Relena laughed beside him with a brunette-haired Mariemaia, whose hair was now oddly long, between them. "I'm just glad we're not late."

"_You know them; they would have made excuses to wait for us."_ Trowa's voice came from the radio in the cab.

"Hah! He's right about that. Anyways, you'd better get inside. We'll take care of your loads. Once we're on the transport off this rock, you can get rid of whatever it was you used on your hair. I must admit, it's creeping me out!" Quatre nodded in amusement as Howard backed up and waved them in.

He grinned as he saw a blonde-haired Trowa driving with Hilde and a black-haired Une beside him in the second transport.

The third was driven by a white-haired Wufei with a red-haired Sally and a blonde-haired Noin as his passengers.

Once they were inside, the gates were shut and Howard gathered them all around. "I want to warn you now: the bounty's been extended and raised."

"What?" Relena snapped.

"To who?" Noin asked worriedly.

"Quatre's sisters. He would have added more to the list, but the circus has outwardly claimed they would turn Trowa over the moment he darkened their doorway and they don't view Hilde as a threat since Duo's dead. They also increased the amount on you guys specifically. He really wants you badly…"

Trowa couldn't help but chuckle. "The circus troupe is a smart group; they knew what move to make to survive…" He put a reassuring hand on Quatre's shoulder as he noticed his friend's worried expression. "And so do your sisters. They're probably aboard the Peacemillion as we speak."

Quatre chuckled and nodded. "I know… I'm just worried about the increased bounty on us… maybe it was a good thing we decided to disguise ourselves. Well, we'll leave the trucks to you, Howard." Quatre said as he shook the former scientist's hand.

"Go inside and keep low until tomorrow." He instructed them before waving three people over.

They jumped into the trucks as the others complied with his orders.

Howard trotted up to the gates to greet three other trucks that had pulled up to the gates.

"I see… he had everything set up so that it looked like a train of last-minute supplies…" Une said with a shake of her head.

"He knows what he's doing, that's for certain." Noin said with an impressed tone as they entered the main office.

* * *

The next day saw Heiran tapping impatiently at a computer screen as he waited for the data for production of mobile suits on a massive scale to arrive from the old Corsica manufacturing facility.

A knock at his door made him frown. "What is it?"

Andrew peered warily into the office as he noticed Heiran's tone.

The boy was good, and he could have been their leader if he had more enthusiasm and asked fewer questions like Caden.

"Sir, there are more people here for the bounty."

That put a smile on Heiran's face. Despite Relena's beliefs, the Earth Sphere was only truly governed by one thing: money.

He rose from his chair, grabbing his check book before motioning for Andrew to lead on. He followed the young pilot towards the holding area, where he was greeted by three older men being held by Michael, Steven and Vincent, and three younger men standing nearby waiting impatiently.

When he walked in, the three men surrounded him, ignoring Andrew's hand resting on his gun.

"Well?" The one asked.

Heiran ignored them as he pushed his way past them to examine the older men carefully.

Taking out his check book, he flipped it open and examined a set of photos, some of which had a red slash across their faces. He checked each of the older men against the people in the photos, marking off three more.

"That's all in order. Take them away." He instructed Michael, who nodded as all three pilots grabbed the older men and dragged them through another doorway. He ignored their pleas as he turned towards the three younger men. "Am I right to assume that you gentlemen want three separate checks?"

They nodded impatiently.

He wrote out each check and handed it to them. "If you find any more, you will receive more money." He added as they turned to leave.

They glanced back at him with unreadable expressions before being swept up by Quinn and Marco.

Andrew shook his head. "Shouldn't we be putting some people out to hunt down Relena and the others?"

"No. I doubt they'll let themselves be found easily, even by anyone I send out. Speaking of which…" He glanced at Andrew as they began walking down the hallway. "Those annoying Sweepers, any word on them?"

"They left to join their space unit about an hour ago."

"Good. Space is large enough for those tiny rats that they won't be a bother to me for a long while." He growled.

Andrew frowned worriedly. "Their leader was always a big supporter of Relena Peacecraft. Do you think he'd try to smuggle them away with him when he left?"

"No. Surveillance didn't catch anything, did it?"

"No, sir…"

"Then Relena and the others didn't go to him. They were probably afraid that one of the Sweepers would turn them in. They're such a poor rabble; I wouldn't put it past one of them no matter how tight a leash Howard thinks he has on them." He growled in disdain.

Andrew nodded reluctantly. "Is there anything else?"

"No sir."

"Then I'll be getting back to my office. Those estimates for getting the Corsica facility back online should be coming in soon."

"Are you sure it's smart to do that, sir? The Gundams wiped that facility off the map. You'd have to rebuild it from the ground up."

"Some of the more important facilities are still in fairly good shape, considering how effective they were at destroying the place. Some extensive repairs will get them back online within a month."

Andrew froze and stared at Heiran in surprise before Heiran shut the door in his face.

Andrew sighed and shook his head. "Heiran's going to crash and burn if he keeps this up…" He muttered before walking away, silently wondering where Relena and her team had hidden themselves.

* * *

Relena allowed herself a sigh of relief as she dried her hair, which had returned to its natural colour.

There had only been a few moments in order to get rid of the dye before blending into the chaos that was the abandoning of the Sweeper's Earth facilities. Now that they were on the first transport, though, they could finish what they had hastily started back on Earth. The first transport secretly held the Gundams buried under piles of scrap just in case they were boarded by Heiran's supporters. They were to rendezvous with the Sweeper's space unit and then head for Quatre's home colony to the Peacemillion's hiding place.

"Never again will I choose black." Quatre growled in frustration as he rested the towel around his shoulders. The hair dye was gone, but his hair was noticeably darker than it had been, to a point where it almost matched Relena's.

"Don't worry, it will fade with time." Trowa said as he handed Quatre a shirt before returning his attentions to doing up his own.

Wufei scowled as he threw a white muscle shirt over his head. "I still don't see why we had to do it in the first place." His hair had become lighter due to the method that they had used to get his hair white, now looking almost like a dark grey instead of black.

Noin sighed in annoyance as she fixed the strap of her spaghetti-strap shirt before slipping her uniform jacket on. "It was either that or some other drastic measure." She said as she helped Mariemaia get the fake hair they had clipped onto her real hair off.

Howard entered and shook his head as he saw all of the abandoned disguises and towels on the floor. "Just a heads up, we're almost to the rendezvous point." He said as he adjusted his sunglasses.

"Thanks again for this, Howard. You're really putting yourself at risk though." Relena said in concern.

Howard scoffed at her. "I've been dealing with danger and risk for longer than any of you have been alive. The Sweepers are all loyal to you and the Gundam pilots. We're willing to put our heads on a chopping block if it keeps you safe until he's deposed."

Relena sighed, knowing there was no use in trying to dissuade him.

Howard nodded in satisfaction. "Stay hidden, no matter what happens. Heiran may have his hands busy with getting the Earth in order, but he has enough supporters in space that it could be problematic for us if even one of them caught a hint that we may be sheltering you."

Relena and the others nodded in agreement before Howard left them to finish getting back to normal.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Sorry it's a short chapter this time, but this was just a transitional one setting things up for the next act. Enjoy!


	18. Aboard the Peacemillion

Chapter 18: Aboard the Peacemillion

Duo sighed in exhaustion as he floated along the Peacemillion's corridors. He had never had such lasting injuries as the ones he had gained from their reckless last-second escape from the explosion.

He winced as the cane used to keep the weight off his heavy sprained ankle when the ship's gravity was turned on accidentally hit his broken arm because he had it hanging onto the sling to avoid having to carry it. He had an open ESUN uniform jacket slung over his shoulders to hide the bruises that marred his upper body. The open jacket revealed bandages around his middle, which made him wince as he twisted to look back to see if Milliardo and Heero were still behind him.

Milliardo was sporting a neck brace, bandages around his middle, and had an arm in a sling to stop him from using a dislocated shoulder.

Heero had a bandage wrapped around his head and several other bandages patching up the cuts, gashes, and burns that he had received.

"It's a good thing that seven of Quatre's sisters are in the medical field, or else we wouldn't have survived our injuries…" Heero growled against the pain that decided to sear through his burned arm at that moment.

"It was our reckless decision to go right into space without treating our injuries that made them as bad as they became in the first place." Milliardo said in annoyance.

"True, but they seemed to regret Irea not being there to help though…" Duo said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"She was the eldest child of the Winner family, so it's to be expected that she was the best. She had more experience." Heero said sternly, although the other two noted that there wasn't really anything behind his stern tone.

Irea had died helping Quatre during the later part of the primary half of the Eve Wars… it was her death that would become the final straw that lead to Quatre's emotional breakdown and the first Wing Zero's construction.

Rashid floated up to them as they fell into silence. "Word is the Sweepers have rendezvoused at D120 and are heading this way. So it looks like we'll have a lot more company soon."

"Any word on whether Relena and the others are with them?" Milliardo asked in concern.

Rashid shook his head. "I'm sorry Milliardo…"

"Don't apologise. I know you're just as worried about Quatre as we are about the others."

Rashid nodded. "By the way, that information is old, picked up from colony transmissions we intercepted. The Peacemillion's radar systems are still malfunctioning, so we won't know they're here until they walk through that door." Rashid said as he absently waved at the doorway they were standing in front of, which lead to the airlock and gangplank towards the colony.

Suddenly, as though on cue, the door opened and Hilde squeaked in relief at the sight of a surprised Duo. She pushed herself off the floor and collided with him, hugging him tightly until his yelp of pain made her pull back and apologise profusely.

Milliardo shot a dark look at Rashid. "You're quite the liar aren't you?" He growled as the others came in.

Rashid could only chuckle in amusement as he greeted Quatre and the others.

"You three look awful." Trowa commented mildly as he took in their injuries.

Heero rolled his eyes in annoyance as Relena glanced worriedly at him before going to Milliardo.

"The Gundams are being loaded in on the other side. The Sweepers brought enough Gundanium to repair all six of the Gundams, heck, they could probably make six new Gundams from the amount they brought." She informed him.

He smiled gratefully at Howard as he came in last.

"You don't mind if we take over the ship, do you Rashid?" The old man asked.

Rashid bowed deeply. "The Peacemillion is yours to command."

Howard chuckled in amusement. "Well, come on; let's get out of the hallway. It's a little too crowded in here."

The others nodded in agreement as they followed Rashid and Howard towards the command bridge of the Peacemillion.

* * *

The Maganacs on the bridge cheered in relief as Quatre entered, waving in embarrassment at them.

"All right, the Sweepers have commandeered the Peacemillion! We're relieved of our duties!" Rashid ordered.

The Maganacs agreed willingly as Quatre looked at Rashid in concern.

"About my sisters…"

"They're aboard. In fact, it was thanks to them that these three maniacs aren't dead." Rashid said, jabbing a thumb in Milliardo, Duo and Heero's direction.

Quatre sighed in relief and allowed himself a chuckle of amusement at his injured comrades' expense. "I'm going to go see them, I'll let you guys handle everything else." He said as he patted Rashid's arm before leaving the bridge.

They watched silently as the control centre below them changed hands from the Maganacs to the Sweepers.

"If you don't mind, we're going to help repair the Gundams. You guys aren't in any shape to help, and those of you that are… well… you need to rest before we start our counter measures against Heiran." Rashid said, ignoring the dark looks some of the pilots were giving him.

Howard chuckled and nodded. "Just be careful."

Rashid nodded before he left the bridge.

"We should help… they are our Gundams…" Duo grumbled.

Hilde frowned and slapped his broken arm, eliciting a gritted curse from him. "You're in no shape to help, so just concentrate on getting better." She hissed at him, causing him to sigh and nod reluctantly.

The others fought back amused expressions as a Sweeper informed Howard that everything was ready.

"All right! The Peacemillion is heading out! Shut down the Hyper Jammers and re-route the power to the engines! We need to make this a fast move!" Howard ordered.

"Where are we going?" Relena asked in concern.

"We have to keep a low profile for a while, but sticking around here with the Hyper Jammers activated wouldn't be a good idea if we were accidentally discovered, so…" Howard barked a series of co-ordinates, causing the Sweepers and the others to stare at him in surprise.

"The Libra Debris Field…?" Une asked in curiosity.

Howard nodded. "Yep… we commonly go there to scavenge from the debris, so it wouldn't arouse suspicion. Plus, there's so much debris that if Heiran does decide to attack us, those Gundams of his would be useless because of the interference!"

Duo chuckled. "Smartass."

Howard flashed a grin at the younger man before shooing them off the bridge. "We'll inform you of anything that happens. All of you should just leave everything to us." He explained as they tried to protest before sealing off the bridge in their faces.

"Ugh! That man can be as bad as you five sometimes!" Relena said in frustration.

"Hey!" Duo yelped in annoyance.

"We take offence to that…" Wufei scowled.

Relena sighed and shook her head as Mariemaia hid her amused laughter.

"It doesn't matter anyways… there's nothing we can do for the moment. Come on, you must tell us how you escaped that explosion." Relena said as she looked at the three wounded pilots in concern as the group headed for the Peacemillion's lounge.

* * *

"It really was the last second." Duo explained when they were sitting around, listening to them talk about what happened when the cameras went dead. "We lost a lot of plating and we were even forced to abandon quite a few of our weapons, especially since they were pretty much useless by that point."

"Of course, that should work towards making them believe they destroyed us. Our radars were interfered with thanks to the explosion, and I have no doubt that theirs were too, or else they would have seen our escape." Milliardo added.

The other two pilots nodded in agreement.

"We were already pretty messed up from the explosion, but we knew we didn't have much time before the area would be completely compromised of safe havens, so we just kept going up." Duo said with half of a shrug.

Trowa rolled his eyes as Hilde and Relena glared at the three pilots.

"By the time we made it to the Peacemillion, we were in worse shape than we had been after escaping the explosion, and our Gundams were almost unrecognizable from the amount of damage they had sustained." Heero explained boredly.

"Rashid admitted that if the Peacemillion had weapons, we would have been dead before we got into contact with them." Duo said with an amused grin, ignoring the sharp look he was receiving from Hilde.

"Well I'm glad you three are alive. Heiran will be busy for a long time before he can come after us up here; Alexander is making sure of that. So we can all recover from everything that's happened to us…" Relena said with a worried frown.

Mariemaia glanced at her worriedly. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "I'm just worried about the other officials. What's Heiran planning to do with them once he's gotten all of them?"

"He'll probably make them an example to deter rebels." Quatre said as he entered with a grim expression.

The others nodded in agreement, causing Relena to sigh and shake her head in annoyance at the situation they were facing. "I hate leaving them to this…"

Noin put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Unfortunately, if you try to do anything to stop him now, all that will end up happening is that we'll lose you. Despite what you may think, you're the anchor that keeps all of us from going our separate ways for the rest of our lives."

"Not to mention what could possibly happen to the entire Earth Sphere if you weren't there…" Sally added to nods of agreement from the others.

Relena couldn't help but laugh in amusement. "Do you guys hear yourselves?"

Une flashed a smile at Relena. "We know it sounds horribly corny, but it's true."

Relena rolled her eyes as she went towards the door. "All of you get some rest, I'll need all of you in top shape if I'm to take back the Earth Sphere from Heiran."

They nodded in agreement again, and that was enough for her as she left the lounge to go check on the events on the bridge.

* * *

Heiran frowned down at a report from his businesses in the colonies that said the majority of the scrap yards had been abandoned, and any useful objects that had been marked out by his employees in those yards had vanished as well. Even that little bitch that his observers had constantly reported seeing hanging off of Maxwell's arm was gone.

What he wasn't aware of was that his observers had modified their reports on Hilde's disappearance to avoid his wrath, leading him to believe it was only a recent disappearance.

A little bit of digging on his employee's part revealed that all of the abandoned scrap yards had connections to the Sweepers group.

He growled in annoyance as he let the report drop back onto the pile of equally bleak and troublesome reports from the colonies. It looked as though he may have to make a visit to space sooner than he had planned if things up there kept deteriorating at this pace.

Before he could move on to situations here on Earth, Caden and Andrew entered. He frowned in concern since the two pilots were rarely seen in each other's company unless he needed them to be.

"What's wrong?" He snapped.

The two froze in their tracks uncertainly before he sighed and waved at them to go on with whatever they had come here for.

"Sir, some questionable reports have come out of the colonies, but they're so conflicting that I'm not certain they're true." Andrew said warily.

Caden glanced at Andrew in annoyance, but nodded in agreement. More reason for concern. For them to agree on anything was a far rarer sight than seeing them together.

"What is it?"

Andrew nodded to Caden, who rolled his eyes before answering. "People have claimed that the Peacemillion was spotted leaving Quatre Winner's home colony some time after the Sweepers gathered their forces together in space. Its whereabouts are currently unknown, but the people who saw it swear it was the Peacemillion."

"Of course, there are people who are denying it, saying that people who saw the ship were having delusions." Andrew added. "The deniers are credible sources, and the believers aren't as credible, but more numerous."

Heiran scowled. The Peacemillion was the last thing he wanted to show up now. Even people who had willingly sided with him would be swayed by that ship, after all: it was considered to be the most important symbol of peace during the Eve Wars because it played an integral role in bringing the Earth Sphere peace without the use of any weapons.

"I thought it was destroyed."

Andrew shrugged. "Supposedly it was, but in regards to this ship, all we have is word of mouth… we have no pictures or video footage to confirm or refute the claims."

Heiran held on to the anger that had begun boiling up at this unwanted piece of news. "How many more ESUN personnel are left?"

"If you don't count anyone connected to Relena… then there's only a few, sir." Caden answered warily.

"Good. Increase the bounty on those that remain to match the bounties on Relena and her little entourage's heads. I want them found. When that's done, then I'll tell you what I want done next." He growled.

The two pilots nodded before leaving quickly, neither of them wanting to be there any longer than they had to be.

Once they were gone, he slammed his fists onto the desk, allowing the anger to be unleashed for a few moments. "Why does this whole mess reek of those damn Sweepers? I should have had those idiots go in and wipe out the whole lot of them when I had the chance…" He snarled in frustration. However, the damage was done, and all he could do was try to fix it before it went beyond his control… although he began to wonder if the appearance of the Peacemillion was a sign that it was already too late…

* * *

**Author's Notes:** You really didn't think I'd kill them off did you? I'm not that cold hearted. Yet. No, I'm not scared of killing people off, it's just not the right time to do it yet. Don't worry, there will be plenty of deaths to come.


	19. Execution

Chapter 19: Execution

A month had crawled by slowly with no sign of movement from Heiran or his supporters. Relena stood on the catwalk overlooking the mobile suit storage bay that held the Gundams on the Peacemillion.

Most of the attention was on getting the Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron operational. However, since most of the damaged parts had been burned or melted by beam weapons, it had taken longer to obtain the parts to replace them. It didn't help their situation that supply teams were forced to dodge Heiran's supporters and get the parts beneath the table to avoid getting their suppliers in trouble.

She still couldn't bring herself to look at the other three, which still looked almost like skeletal remains in some places, despite the best efforts of their repair crews. It was too painful to think about how close she had come to losing the three men who piloted them.

She was surprised when she noticed Wufei standing silently beside her, gazing down at the combined teams of Maganacs and Sweepers as they worked on the Gundams.

As the lights gleamed off his now fully black hair, she knew that she wasn't the only one to be grateful that the side effect of their hair dying wasn't permanent.

"What brings you here?" Relena asked curiously.

"The others were worried about you, so I came to find you." He explained boredly.

Relena couldn't hide her smile as she caught the evasive tone in his voice. "Thank you."

Wufei simply shrugged his shoulders as they watched a crew of Sweepers attach the head to the Altron.

She patted his arm gratefully before walking across the catwalk, deciding that it was time to check on what was happening in other parts of the ship. She was pleasantly surprised when she realized that he was following her, glancing around at the other catwalks warily.

Most of the people on the other catwalks were too busy yelling down to the people working on the Gundams, giving them instructions on placement issues they were able to see thanks to their higher view.

"It feels good not being the one in charge." She admitted happily.

Wufei glanced at her in surprise before masking it with an annoyed scowl. "Why are you telling me this?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, maybe because I simply felt like it. It's a great weight off my shoulders, if only for the time being. Howard has this ship running as smoothly as it can, Rashid's in charge of overseeing the repairs to the Gundams and you guys are all free to do what you want until Heiran makes his move. I'm just another passenger doing whatever she can to help wherever I can." She smiled as Wufei rolled his eyes at her.

"Sometimes I wonder what the others see in you."

She couldn't help but laugh at him. "I guess we're even then, because sometimes I wonder why you stick around. There are times when it seems like you object so strongly to your Gundam only being used as a body guard that I'm surprised you haven't simply left during one of those trips." She knew she hit a nerve from the dark look he had given her.

"I do what I choose to do for my own reasons." He growled.

She patted his arm reassuringly as she smiled at him. "Don't worry, I didn't mean it. I've posed the same thought to the others, and they give me almost the same reactions you did. I'm glad to have you and Nataku on my side. I know it may not seem like it at times, but I am."

He stared at her in surprise when he realized that she had called the Altron by the name he had given it in honour of his late wife. He shook his head as they left the hangar, muttering in annoyance.

Whether it was annoyance with himself or with her, she didn't know, but she couldn't help smiling as they walked down the corridor.

The gravity generators had been activated to help make it easier for the large amount of people aboard to move within the confines of the ship as it sat quietly in a relatively clear part of the debris field that used to be the Libra space station.

Relena found herself grateful for the generators because of the ill feeling she always felt in the weightless environment.

* * *

Heiran scowled in annoyance at the conflicting reports on what happened to the ship that had been spotted leaving Quatre's home colony.

Some were saying it was going around to the colonies trying to rally support for Relena, others were saying it was support for Heiran, others still said that the ship had hidden itself within the Libra Debris Field. He dropped them quickly, but picked up another report, this time from the Sweepers themselves. His supporters had somehow managed to get a message to them, asking about the ship.

They had sent their reply directly to him, which probably irritated his supporters in the colonies. They apologised for the confusion their mobile base had been generating in the colonies, but claimed their mobile base was the only thing large enough to contain all of the Sweepers. They admitted the ship had a similar design to the Peacemillion, but denied it was the Gundam flagship, which they said was destroyed with the Libra.

Unfortunately for Heiran, the official documents from the Libra Deconstruction Project confirmed their claims, which meant he couldn't disband the Sweepers without it becoming a rallying cry for Relena and her pets because of how popular the Sweepers were in space.

He was concerned with how much influence the Sweepers had in the colonies, but without solid proof that they were sheltering Relena, he was forced to allow them to do whatever they wanted to avoid turning people against him. He tossed that report down with a growl just as Caden entered.

"Sir, we finally have them." He said with a smug grin.

The brat was too prideful for his own good, but the news Heiran had been anxiously waiting for forced him to discard any 'lessons' he had planned for the leader of his pilots.

"Excellent." He said as he strode quickly from the office, forcing Caden to trot to keep up.

After confirming it was the last members of the ESUN leaders he expected to find, and paying off the people who had brought them, he gathered his pilots.

"In an hour, I want them all bound in the yard. An Earth Sphere-wide broadcast of their execution should bring the rest of the people to heel."

The pilots nodded warily, even Caden seemed squeamish at the idea of publicly executing a bunch of people whose only crime was being connected with Relena, even if it was only by their profession.

"Hurry up with the preparations. I want this over and done with. The colonies are becoming a problem that I can't afford to ignore any longer." He snapped at them before turning and stalking away.

He could hear them muttering to each other, but he knew they would do as he told them. They were bound to him now by the actions they took against the ESUN.

That thought made a smile appear on his face: Relena only had three pilots, useless without their Gundams, and he had nine with fully operational Gundams. If she was hiding with the Sweepers, they would be crushed easily.

The real reason for the execution was to shake their resolve, and perhaps send their allies scattering. He would be amused by that. However, his intentions to use the Corsica base to generate mass-produced suits had fallen through when it was determined to be impossible to repair, so now he was forced to find an alternative before the execution took place…

* * *

In the cafeteria on the Peacemillion, Duo sighed in annoyance as he looked down at the only injury he still had: his broken arm.

The other two had fully recovered and were trying to convince Howard and Relena to let them help with the repairs to the Gundams, but since Trowa, Quatre and Wufei weren't allowed, everyone knew that there was no way Heero and Milliardo would be allowed either.

"So how come you're the only one to actually break something?" Trowa asked, trying hard not to smile in amusement.

"Honestly? I don't remember even breaking it. It was a bit sore when we took off after the explosion, so it may have been fractured." Duo said with a shrug.

"Which means it would have broken during your exit through the atmosphere. It's rough enough when you're safe inside of a transport, but doing it in just your Gundam without any kind of protection…" Quatre said thoughtfully.

Duo threw up his good arm in defeat. "Oh well, I don't care since I'm still out of commission when it comes to piloting. I'm just glad to be alive."

"I think that's one thing all of us share in common." Trowa admitted.

Quatre nodded in agreement.

"Of course, one thing bugs the hell outta me: how did we let ourselves get so thoroughly trashed by those rats?" Duo asked in annoyance.

Trowa shrugged. "Perhaps it was because we underestimated Heiran… or perhaps because we had let ourselves get rusty and we never really noticed it back in the other universe. There's a considerable difference between mass-produced suits and Gundams, we should have remembered that."

Quatre nodded reluctantly and was about to add his own comments when Rashid entered, panting and wearing a worried expression.

The pilots stood and looked at him in concern.

"What's wrong?" Quatre asked.

"Yaturi's going to make an announcement." He growled.

The three pilots paled before following Rashid to the bridge.

* * *

The others were already there, each one looking wary or grim as the Sweepers below frantically worked to get a screen up on the transparent shield that acted like a window out to space.

"What do you think he's going to say this time?" Sally asked as she frowned.

"Whatever it is, I have a feeling we're not going to like it." Howard said as he shook his head.

"Is this being broadcast throughout the ship?" Une asked in concern.

"No… in fact, everyone below is leaving once they're done." Howard said sternly.

"You're worried he's going to say or do something drastic, aren't you?" Mariemaia asked worriedly.

Noin nodded. "You should probably leave the bridge too, Mariemaia. Are you sure you don't want to leave, Hilde?"

Hilde stood beside Duo and shook her head. "I've seen worse than anything he could do."

Mariemaia shook her head. "I'll stay… like Hilde, I've seen worse."

Une and Relena stood beside her, both women wrapping an arm around her in concern.

A screen stating that a message from Heiran Yaturi would soon be starting appeared, and like Howard said: the bridge was cleared of the crew.

"Showtime…" One of the men growled, but since all of them were wearing almost identical expressions of grim hatred, it wasn't clear who had spoken as Heiran appeared on the screen.

* * *

"_People of the Earth Sphere, I come to you again to make a few announcements."_ Heiran said coolly; he was the perfect image of a man who was in charge and knew it.

"After this, can we draw straws to see who gets to put the bullet in his head?" Wufei asked dangerously, ignoring the warning glare Relena directed at him.

Relena's warning glare promptly tried to make its way around to the other pilots as they nodded in agreement with Wufei, but none of them noticed it.

She was forced to admit defeat as she turned her attention back to Heiran, but she knew she'd have to try and stomp out their desires to murder him before it could become a problem.

"_The first one is that I'm officially dropping the bounty on Relena Peacecraft, the Defence Council, the remaining pilots and all of their associates. I fear that they have grown too dangerous for the normal public to handle and must advise everyone not to look for them. They will be dealt with when I feel it is their time."_

Everyone in the bridge stared at each other in surprise and confusion for a few moments before his next words regained their attention.

"_The others listed on the bounty have all been rounded up. I thank the people of the Earth Sphere for bringing them to me as soon as it was possible. My pilots will now deal out their punishment, and let it be a warning to anyone who would dare help Relena Peacecraft and her people: you can expect the same fate when you are caught."_

Despite being silent before this announcement, the bridge got even quieter, as though nobody dared to breathe as the camera switched to the captured ESUN officials.

They were blindfolded and bound to chairs.

With a nod from Heiran, the pilots proceeded to empty their guns into the ESUN officials. The camera stayed on their bodies for almost a full minute before turning back to Heiran, who continued with more announcements as though it didn't concern him that he had just ordered the deaths of several people.

The people on the bridge were grateful of Howard's decision to clear the bridge, because even they were having a hard time with the fate of the officials.

Relena looked away with her eyes closed as tears ran down her face; Mariemaia looked away and swallowed hard as though to avoid getting sick; Hilde had buried her face into Duo's chest as the pilot unconsciously petted her hair, wearing the same murderous expression as the other pilots; Howard sighed as he cleaned his sunglasses, muttering under his breath; the Defence Council simply wore grim expressions.

None of them seemed interested in what else he had to say, until Noin paled in realization as she caught some of his words. "He's coming to space…"

Everyone was forced out of their thoughts at her shaky words.

"What?" Quatre said in surprise.

"He didn't say it outright, but anyone who paid attention to the way he spoke said he's coming to space. It'll probably be quite soon, too." Noin said warily.

"So what's our plan?" Sally asked.

"All we can do is sit tight and be ready for him to make a move. We can't be seen in the wrong at all. We have to be able to use his actions against him in order to try and reverse the damage that's already been done." Relena said steadily after cleaning her face.

She gave the pilots warning glares as she noticed their expressions, but they gradually nodded in understanding. She sighed in relief, knowing they wouldn't do anything behind her back until the ESUN was back in power.

"Well, let's warn the crew that we may be seeing trouble soon. All hands who aren't working on those Gundams had better start. We may need them…" Howard said grimly.

They nodded and began leaving the bridge in order to see his orders carried out quickly.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Somehow this chapter got missed. Oops! Sorry about that! I hope everyone will still go back and read this one!


	20. Getting Back in the Game

Chapter 20: Getting Back in the Game

_It turned out that Heiran would be spending one month within each cluster upon his arrival to space. His first month was spent in the L1 cluster, but that month was almost over and now the crew of the Peacemillion was watching carefully to see whether he'd come to the L2 cluster or skip to the L3 cluster…_

Hilde sighed in exhaustion as she and a crew of Sweepers returned from gathering supplies the crew of the Peacemillion needed in order to avoid being forced out of the Libra Debris Field before they had to be.

"How is it in the colonies?" Howard asked as he checked over the supplies.

Hilde cringed. "You don't want to know…"

Howard nodded in understanding. "Before joining our space unit, I had it plant some seeds of unrest among the people of the colonies… I guess it's getting a bit out of hand."

"Well Howard, let me put it this way: when seeds of unrest are sewn, they become weeds!" One of the Sweepers commented as he passed, carrying a small crate of medical supplies.

Howard chuckled as he waved the Sweeper towards the medical bay.

Hilde frowned. "I don't see what's so amusing. This could become a serious problem."

Rashid chuckled as he appeared, passing Howard a sheet of paper.

Howard dismissed it by shoving it into one of his shorts pockets.

"The chaos the Sweepers have caused will force Heiran's attentions away from us for a time. And we'll need all the time we can get. I still haven't been able to convince Relena to allow the Maganacs access to the NJD cancellers."

Hilde nodded reluctantly to Rashid's explanation.

"Go rest Hilde and I'll talk to Relena for you, Rashid." Howard said as the last supplies were directed to their appropriate destinations.

As Hilde left, Rashid waited with Howard until he made sure there were no more supplies to be delivered, and then followed him back to the bridge.

* * *

"Any word on where Yaturi's going next?" Howard asked.

The Sweepers at the controls shrugged uncertainly.

"Nothing yet, Howard. He should be announcing his next destination any moment though." One of the Sweepers said.

Howard nodded in understanding as the others arrived.

"What brings you guys up here?" Rashid asked curiously.

"Big Mouth hasn't made an announcement in almost two weeks. That's too quiet for him." Duo said with a shrug.

The others nodded in agreement.

"Even if it was just a simple report to remind people who's in charge, he was always making weekly announcements." Noin admitted with a frown.

"Sir, he's made his announcement. It's just a simple text message, but he's on his way to the L2 cluster, specifically V08744, as we speak."

Relena stared in surprise. "Why would he be going to such an old colony?"

A cringe quickly flashed on Duo's face, but it didn't escape Howard and Heero's sharp gazes.

Howard simply adjusted his sunglasses and kept his silence, knowing the reason for his cringe.

Heero's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong, Duo?"

Duo shrugged and shook his head. "It's nothing…"

Heero nodded, allowing the subject to drop.

Despite how close they had become in recent years, they still kept their pasts a secret from each other, and it was obvious that it would stay that way for some time yet.

"That brings him awfully close to us…" Noin said as she frowned thoughtfully.

"How are the Gundams?" Trowa asked in concern.

"Your three are ready to go if we need them. The others are nearly ready, but there's still quite a bit of work…" Rashid explained.

Milliardo, Heero and Duo grimaced at the thought of still being unable to fight.

"If all nine were to attack, there's a high possibility they could simply leave a few to distract the Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron, then come for the Peacemillion." Howard admitted with a casual glance towards Rashid, who nodded in agreement.

Relena frowned thoughtfully between Rashid and Howard before rolling her eyes, knowing they were right and wouldn't stop hinting at it until they had gotten the permission they so desperately wanted. "All right! The Maganac mobile suits can be equipped with NJD cancellers! At least until this situation is over and done with!" She said in annoyed defeat.

Rashid chuckled. "Thank you. We'll be sure to defend this ship with our lives, Relena." He said before saluting her in the Maganac fashion and leaving the bridge to inform the other Maganacs.

"By the way, I don't know whether the rest of the Defence Council would be interested to know that I managed to procure three Virgo II's… but I figured I'd let you know that anyways." Howard said with a casual shrug.

"They've been modified for use by humans, and all they need is NJD cancellers, then they'll be ready for battle."

Sally, Noin and Une glanced at Relena tentatively.

Relena sighed and shook her head. "Go ahead. The more defence we have, the safer this ship will be."

Howard nodded and sent a Sweeper to assemble a crew to do it.

Milliardo smirked in amusement. "The Virgo II's have the Planet Defensors… that should prove to be an interesting match…"

"At least the Planet Defensors will throw them for a loop the first time we fight them." Noin said with a pleased smile.

Relena was about to ask what they were to do until the NJD cancellers were built, but she quickly realized that the Peacemillion was also powered by a nuclear engine.

_How come I am not surprised that Howard seemed to have had all of this thought out in advanced?_

Duo patted Howard on the shoulder while shaking his head in disbelief. "You're still as bad as those other old goons."

The other pilots nodded in agreement, causing Howard to chuckle at them. "I just like to keep one step ahead of everyone else."

"We might as well go and help. I must admit I'm getting bored of just waiting for something to happen." Quatre said as he headed for the door.

The others nodded and followed them.

"Keep your eyes out for any sign of Heiran making a move… we can't afford to be caught off guard." Milliardo instructed before following the pilots out.

* * *

Heiran scowled in annoyance as he learned that V08744 was severely lacking when it came to up-to-date technology. That meant that he would be forced to adapt his strategies in order to compensate for that setback… and he hated doing that. It was a meaningless waste of time, in his opinion.

Once he had finished learning about the facilities the colony had, he gathered his pilots together.

"It seems as though our hand has been forced. We cannot deal with the Sweepers until we've gotten a detailed layout of the situation in the Libra Debris Field. Unfortunately, with the technology they have at their disposal… that will take at least two weeks." Heiran growled.

"Why do we need a layout of the debris field?" Caden asked in annoyance.

Heiran scowled at him but Andrew cut in before he could speak.

"The debris field could still hold some dangerous materials. They only destroyed what remained of the Libra, they didn't actually check to make sure there weren't any weapons or explosive materials that didn't detonate in the initial destruction project. If we go in there blind, we may run into trouble."

"Andrew is right." Heiran said with a snap in his tone. "The Sweepers have the advantage because they frequently enter the debris field in order to obtain useable supplies. Even with a ship as large as the one they're in now, they'd know where the dangerous spots are and be able to avoid them. We don't have that luxury."

Caden nodded reluctantly in agreement. "So we have to wait for two whole weeks before we have the debris field mapped out, right? Then we'll have to be on our guards when we go in…" He said grimly.

Andrew looked at him in surprise; he had never thought Caden was the type to be able to think things through, especially with his track record against him.

"Trowa, Quatre and Wufei won't sit back idly while they're in hiding. They've had about two and a half months to rebuild their Gundams, and if we went in there without being wary, they can easily ambush us by hiding amongst the debris…" Steven said thoughtfully.

"Plus, who knows what the others intend to do? They know three Gundams won't be able to keep us from going after their ship." Vincent said as he rubbed one of his temples, a bad habit he had whenever he was thinking.

Heiran nodded. "Make sure your Gundams are in top shape. I want them to be ready for anything they may throw at us. When the map is completed, you'll go into the debris field under the guise of a reconnaissance mission. I want confirmation about that ship and who's on board. If they are on board, they will defend the ship; if they aren't… well… the Earth Sphere would be a better place without those damn Sweepers."

"And what excuse will we hand to the people of the Earth Sphere when they find out the Sweepers have been eliminated?" Quinn asked in slight annoyance.

"Leave that to me. You just do as you're told." Heiran instructed coldly.

The pilots nodded in reluctant agreement before leaving at a dismissive wave of his hand.

Once they were a safe distance away, they began talking amongst themselves; some of them had even begun wondering whether they had made the right decision back when he offered them a change of revenge against Relena Peacecraft for the embarrassment they suffered when they were pushed aside for the older pilots…

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Sorry for such a boring chapter, guys. Things will be picking up soon. Maybe not in the next chapter, but soon. I promise.


	21. Old Allies New Battle

Chapter 21: Old Allies; New Battle

_The two weeks passed very quickly for all involved in the race to see who would succeed in the battle between Heiran Yaturi and Relena Peacecraft. Soon, Heiran's pilots stood on the edge of the debris field waiting for Heiran to give them the order to enter; meanwhile, inside the debris field, the sensors the Sweepers had put out along the edge warned the crew aboard the Peacemillion that their enemy had finally arrived…_

* * *

"_We're no longer the Defence Council until we can bring the ESUN back to life, so Quatre will be the leader of the Peacemillion defence forces until our three suits are operational."_ Milliardo informed the others as they began picking their way through the debris towards the edge, wanting to keep the fight as far from the Peacemillion as possible.

Quatre balked at his orders for a few minutes before reluctantly giving in. _"Maganacs and Virgo II's… please stay within the debris field and keep a low profile. Wufei, Trowa and myself will get them to lower their guards, and then you can come out and surprise them… I hope."_

Noin smiled reassuringly at his image on the side screen of her Virgo II's visual screens. _"Don't worry about us Quatre, we'll be careful. You guys just worry about yourselves… as the others have proven: three on nine is never very good odds when it's a battle of Gundams."_

"_We're going on ahead, you guys keep back."_ Quatre said as the Sandrock, Heavyarms, and Altron sped ahead of the Maganacs and Virgo II's.

"_I'm a little bit concerned about doing this… won't this simply become a giant target on the Peacemillion? If we're here in fully rebuilt Gundams, then they'll realize that Relena and the others are aboard… which will cause them to come after us more frequently."_ Trowa said with a frown.

"_I have a feeling it wouldn't have made a difference: they probably still would have destroyed the Peacemillion simply because the Sweepers are known allies of ours. This way we can keep the Peacemillion from danger."_ Wufei commented coolly as they came closer to the edge of the debris field.

"_Despite the fact that it may prove disadvantageous for us, remember to wait for them to make the first move. Relena will already have her hands full with trying to restore the ESUN's tarnished image without us adding any more to it."_ Quatre warned as he looked over the map of the debris field they had been given by Howard to avoid any spots that were considered dangerous by the Sweepers

"_Don't worry Quatre; I doubt either of us were planning on doing that."_ Trowa said with a hint of a warning glance at the Altron as it flew beside the Heavyarms.

"_Does anyone have any dibs on any specific targets?"_ Wufei asked coolly as he realized who they were talking about.

"_I don't have any, especially since we don't really know who is piloting which suit."_ Quatre admitted as they could now see the end of the debris field on their visual screens.

"_Do you want the Epyon, Wufei?"_ Trowa asked as he remembered Wufei's personal war with Treize Khushrenada.

"_It doesn't matter… we'll probably end up fighting all of them anyways."_ Wufei replied grimly as their Gundams' thrusters erupted with a burst of speed and they charged towards the edge to prevent the others from dragging the fight into the debris field and risking the premature discovery of their allies.

* * *

"_Okay… so the Sweepers ship is somewhere in the middle of all this… This will be fun."_ Yamato said with a strong bite of sarcasm as they stared at the floating debris that acted like a wall between them and their target.

The others nodded in agreement as what was once a piece of the Libra's outer wall floated past. The sizeable chuck of debris effectively blocked their view of the rest of the field.

"_Damn… how are we supposed to find anything in there with chunks like that floating around?"_ Marco growled as his Gundam aimed its gun at the wall with the intention of destroying it.

Andrew's Gundam floated in between to stop him. _"We have to be careful; we don't know what could be attached to that wall. The Sweepers could have laid traps in among the debris."_ Andrew's Gundam didn't move until Marco's Gundam lowered its gun, its pilot nodding in reluctant agreement.

Only then did Andrew's Gundam take its place back beside the Epyon and they waited patiently for the piece of wall to move past.

Because of the large amount of debris messing with their radar systems, none of them bothered to look at their radars. So when the wall piece finally floated past, they were horrified to see the Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron appear from behind the wall.

"_When the hell did they get there?"_ Caden yelled in annoyed shock.

"_None of us looked at our radars, did we?"_ Michael asked grimly as the three Gundams stood between them and the main body of the debris field.

Andrew immediately contacted Heiran, who had been waiting impatiently for word from them. _"Sir, it looks like Relena is aboard the Sweeper ship." _

_And how did you come to that conclusion?"_ Heiran asked flatly, apparently not impressed with being told something he already suspected.

"_We're staring down the Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron. They snuck up on us while a large piece of the Libra's wall was blocking our vision."_ Andrew answered apologetically.

"_What are they doing?"_ Heiran asked warily. If he was angry with their mistake, he showed no signs of it.

"_They're just standing there…"_ Andrew said thoughtfully.

"_Interesting… they're trying to make me look in the wrong…"_ Heiran smirked in amusement. _"Wipe them out. I'll handle the public if they start crying foul."_ He ordered.

Andrew nodded in understanding as Heiran vanished. _"You heard him Caden…"_

Caden nodded and instructed the others to attack; although both pilots secretly hoped that Heiran wouldn't stab them in the back and paint them as rogues that went against his orders in order to appease the still wary public…

* * *

"_Are you guys in position back there?"_ Wufei asked as they stared down the enemy Gundams.

"_Don't worry, we're ready."_ Noin replied casually.

"_Our radar signals look merely like more pieces of debris."_ Rashid said with a grin.

Wufei smirked in reply before cutting off communication with them and focusing his attention on the Gundams before them.

"_I must admit that it was incredibly lucky of us when that piece of wall debris floated by. It was probably a big shock for them when the wall moved."_ Trowa said in cold amusement as they prepared to be on the defensive.

"_I must admit, it's a lot of fun pulling stunts like that on our enemies."_ Quatre said as the enemy Gundams suddenly lunged forward with their weapons bared.

With the enemy having made the first move as planned, the Heavyarms opened fire, scattering them as they tried to dodge. Those that managed to dodge the Heavyarms' artillery fire were met with the Altron's flamethrowers. The Sandrock stood in wait with its Heat Shotels unsheathed, ready to attack any of the enemy Gundams that made it past the other two.

Suddenly, the Epyon lunged recklessly through the Altron's flames and aimed its beam sabre at the Altron's cockpit, forcing it to stop aiding the Heavyarms' assault in order to dodge the incoming attack.

The Sandrock was quickly there to take the Epyon's attention away from the Altron long enough for it to bring out its beam trident.

"_I can safely assume that the Epyon is being piloted by that Caden kid. He was the only one reckless enough to attack the Tallgeese III in our only training session."_ Quatre said as the Sandrock fell back to allow the Altron its chance at retaliation.

The other two agreed in annoyance, wondering why Heiran would put a Gundam like the Epyon in Caden's hands.

Without the cross-fire effect of the Altron's flamethrowers to hinder them, the other Gundams were now managing to slip past the Heavyarms' line of fire and join in the attack against the Altron and the Sandrock.

The Heavyarms quickly abandoned its previous tactic and began firing at specific targets in order to prevent the others from getting too overburdened with enemies, while firing at enemies that tried to get in close to it to keep them at bay.

"_I can see why the others never fought long."_ Wufei growled in annoyance as the Altron swung its beam trident wide to break up a grouping that consisted of five enemy Gundams.

"_Even the ZERO System is having a hard time."_ Trowa admitted as the Heavyarms brought out its free hand's army knife to slash at one of the Gundams that had gotten too close for it to safely use any of its artillery.

"_All right reinforcements, it looks as though it's time for you to shine."_ Quatre said as he contacted the others.

"_We can't risk letting this fight get pushed into the debris field, so we have to force them to retreat as soon as possible. Make your entrance as fast and flashy as possible to startle them. You are in mass produced mobile suits and you know how fast they get torn apart by Gundams."_ Quatre instructed them as the Sandrock dodged a pincer attack by Andrew and Quinn's Gundams.

Noin smiled and nodded. _"You heard the man. Let's get to work."_ She said as her Virgo II's thrusters activated and it began its charge towards the battlefield.

The others quickly joined her, spreading out to make their numbers seem larger than they really were.

"_Sally, are you sure you're going to be okay out here?"_ Une asked in concern.

"_Don't worry; I can handle myself in a mobile suit. Just worry about getting those Planetary Defensors online and ready to seriously mess up their hopes of destroying the last three Gundams."_ Sally said while she carried out her own advice.

"_Just remember to leave them some space for retreat: we don't want to lose anybody because they were foolish enough to try and stop them from retreating."_ Rashid instructed, although the words were meant more for his Maganac troops than the three women.

* * *

Andrew was trying hard to ignore Caden's curses as their attempts at overwhelming the Altron and the Sandrock were constantly foiled by well-timed attacks from the Heavyarms despite it being attacked by Quinn and Michael.

It was starting to grate on his nerves as well. They must be using the ZERO System. His eyes widened as an opening presented itself against the Sandrock, and he took it. However, just as his beam sabre got close, the area surrounding its impact sparked furiously.

He was forced to retreat as several blasts coming from the debris field forced all of their Gundams to break up and put some distance between themselves and the Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron.

"_What the hell?"_ Yamato growled in annoyance, and Andrew rightly agreed with him.

There was no way they had missed anything in the debris, especially after furiously scanning their radars when the Gundams had snuck up on them, so what the hell was going on? And what was with that weird barrier of energy around the Sandrock?

Finally, he took in the scene and noticed the greenish-grey disc-like objects floating around the Sandrock and the other two Gundams before they flew back towards three similarly coloured suits and the Maganac Corps suits… which had them almost completely surrounded.

"_There is no way they could have amassed such a large force in only two months!"_ Steven said in shock.

"_Those Maganac suits can be explained by having never been disposed of. All they needed was to make NJD cancellers for them. Those other three though…"_ Quinn said warily.

"_We need to tell Mr. Yaturi about this new development."_ Marco growled in annoyance.

"_Andrew, report this to Mr. Yaturi. The rest of us will keep fighting. We should be able to take a few of them out at least."_ Caden ordered and proceeded to make good on his own orders by lunging at the Altron.

The others quickly joined him as Andrew's Gundam hung back.

* * *

"_Mr. Yaturi, we've encountered a problem…"_ Andrew said as he linked his visual feed to Heiran's screens.

Heiran scowled as he watched his Gundams' futile attempts to breach the barriers put up by the unknown mobile suits. "Virgo II's… who would have thought they had some of those…?" Heiran muttered in annoyance. "Fall back. You can't handle them. They have Planet Defensors, and those are nearly impossible to breach. I'll have to observe the archives from the war to see if I can find out how to breach them. I know it can be done, but I don't know how."

"_Understood."_ The communication line went dead and Heiran let his anger fly by throwing his coffee mug against a wall, watching it shatter but feeling no satisfaction from it.

Relena had managed to dig up more relics from the Eve Wars, and this time they were fully functioning mobile suits with powerful shielding systems. One problem after another just kept piling up.

At least he didn't have to worry about the Wing Zero and its twin buster rifle or the Deathscythe Hell and its stealth systems. Those two were menaces. And Relena no longer had the guiding hand of her brother to help her, so that was something to his advantage.

Now he only had the headache of the three remaining Gundams and those damn Virgo II's… it was going to be a problem, but as long as he could endure sifting through the Eve War archives, he should be able to finally put an end to Relena Peacecraft and her precious pets… and the people of the Earth Sphere would finally realize who was in charge.

He sighed and decided to go meet his pilots to settle them down after being forced to retreat yet again. So far they only had the one victory against Relena Peacecraft, but for some reason even that seemed to bother him. He pushed it out of his mind as he left the room, knowing there was still a lot of work to be done and there was no room to concern himself with the ill feelings that were working their way into his mind and messing with his concentration on the bigger issues.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Heiran's Forces - 0, Relena's Forces - 1. If only thanks to the element of surprise. What will happen next? Read and find out! Oh, and with this chapter, only four more remain until the end of "Is There No Escape from War?".


	22. Plans

Chapter 22: Plans

_As Heiran's forces and Relena's forces returned to their bases, both sides knew it was time to begin thinking about the future. They knew they that dragging out the war would not be an option. Relena was concerned about the well-being of the Earth Sphere if the fight went on too long, and Heiran was concerned about losing what little influence he had over the people of the Earth Sphere if he couldn't get rid of Relena and her pets; so both sides decided to try and make their next encounter their last…_

* * *

"Move the Peacemillion out of the debris field!" Howard ordered as Relena came onto the bridge.

"Why?" She asked in concern.

"If you want to make this the last encounter, we should make ourselves visible to them. Knowing it's the Peacemillion we're aboard will aggravate them and force them to act before the people of the Earth Sphere start to rally for our cause because of it." Howard explained casually as he cleaned his sunglasses.

"We'll have to take the fight to them. Heiran will try to find the Planet Defensors weaknesses, so Heero's working on preventing that." Noin said as she leaned against the back wall.

"By the time Heiran is willing to attack us again the Wing Zero, Deathscythe Hell and Tallgeese III will be up and running. Aside from fixing minor damage to the others, all of the repair crews are working feverishly on them." Rashid informed them as he entered.

"Good, so we need to have two plans: one in case they aren't finished and one in case they are." Milliardo growled as the others came in.

"Why are you here?" Relena asked.

"We noticed the ship had begun to move." Duo said with a shrug.

"If they aren't ready, there isn't much we can do except fight as hard as we can." Wufei said in annoyance but he received nods of agreement from Trowa and Quatre, which stopped Relena from protesting.

"If they are ready, we'll have to use them to our advantage. We should have people working on the front of the Peacemillion, make it seem like we're mounting a weapon onto it. We have to keep the fight away from the Peacemillion, but if we can, the Wing Zero can mask its signal by hiding on the Peacemillion's bow." Quatre suggested thoughtfully.

Milliardo nodded in agreement. "The Deathscythe Hell can go with you guys because of its Hyper Jammers. The Tallgeese III will wait until the Wing Zero, pretending to be a weapon on the bow, attacks before coming out to join you. The rest of you will just have to fight like you would if we weren't operational until that time."

Nobody gave Relena a change to argue with the plan as they nodded in agreement.

Howard was already giving out instructions to a few Sweepers who listened intently from below before vanishing.

"Don't worry Relena, we'll make sure that if they want to surrender, they can." Sally said reassuringly as she patted Relena on the shoulder.

Relena sighed in defeat, knowing they wouldn't hear anything she had to say now that they had decided on their course of action. "Just please be careful out there. I don't want any casualties on our side."

"We'll be fine." Rashid said with a grin and a wave before he left the bridge.

She nodded in acceptance as the others gave their reassurances that they would live through the fight before getting down to business on how they were to make their plans work.

* * *

Unlike those aboard the Peacemillion, Heiran planned alone. The first part of his plan was to find out the Planetary Defensors' weaknesses and exploit them to give his pilots their victory. For that, he needed the public archives, which contained footage from every single battle that took place during the Eve Wars.

Unfortunately the archives were marked by date and he didn't remember exactly when the Virgo series was put on active duty, so he was forced to go through each piece of footage until he found what he was looking for.

He smiled as his memories of the Eve Wars made him realize he was getting closer to the footage he needed: he was only a few battles off from Romefeller's Operation Nova, where the Virgo's had first seen wide use. He had sat on the sidelines during that time, not really caring who was winning the war, so he didn't pay much attention to what was happening unless it happened in his home colony.

It made it hard to gather information from that time period, since most people knew the names for each battle that happened during the Eve Wars but he didn't and he could only remember the biggest events from the Eve Wars. Thankfully, Operation Nova was one of those big events.

His smile faded into a frown as he came across the file that should have held the footage from Operation Nova, but it came up a screen of static with the words 'File Error: Unable to Locate File' coming up. He figured there was a problem with the file since the person in charge of maintaining the information fled with the rest of the ESUN's lesser officials.

As he moved on, however, and more of those screens appeared, he began to realize that somebody had purposely destroyed the files. He could hear his teeth grinding as frustration kept building once it became a constant stream of the errors. Finally his frustration built to a point that he shut off the computer and pounded his fists on the desk as he realized the first part of his plan had been beaten.

None of the employees of the control centre had participated in the later events of the Eve Wars, which meant he couldn't ask them if they knew about those damn Defensors' weaknesses. He would be forced to make a plan based off trial and error… a strategy he hated because of how often it ended in failure. He sighed in resignation as he began coming up with different scenarios and tried to think of ways to counter them. However, none of the scenarios he came up with considered the possibility of the Wing Zero, Deathscythe Hell and Tallgeese III returning to the battlefield.

* * *

Two weeks passed and Heiran sat watching the activity that was happening in front of the Peacemillion. He had been furious when V08744's cameras had caught sight of the ship the Sweepers had denied was the Peacemillion moving out of the debris field, only to learn that it was indeed the nearly-legendary Gundam flagship. The cameras couldn't see exactly what was happening, but he could see movement and he worried that they had decided to put a weapon on the front of the ship. He knew he had to act before they completed whatever kind of weapon it could be, but he still hadn't come up with a good tactic to use against those damn Virgo II's.

Suddenly, the crews stopped working and returned to the ship. Heiran frowned in concern because usually another crew would come out to replace them, but this time there was no movement from the ship.

_There is no way they could have finished so soon! Unless they've been working on it inside the ship since they went into the debris field…_

He pressed a button on his desk, which would alert his pilots that they needed to come to him.

In light of this new development, he altered his plans as he waited for them. Finally, the knock on his door announced their arrival. "Enter." He snapped.

They entered warily, unsure of what he wanted.

"You'll be moving out as soon as possible. I want you to get ready."

They nodded as their wariness turned to determination.

"Finish this once and for all; do not retreat and do not let them retreat."

They nodded again, knowing they would be in grievous trouble if they did.

"Keep the battle as close to the Peacemillion as you can. They may have a front-mounted weapon and you cannot give them a chance to fire it."

"What if we can't, sir?" Andrew asked in concern.

"Then keep your focus. Watch them carefully. I doubt they'd fire on their own, so watch their movements. If they move, you move."

"What should we do about the Virgo II's?" Caden asked.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything on them, so you'll have to try everything and hope that something works." Heiran said with a hint of anger in his voice. "Go now and get ready. I want them wiped off of the face of the Earth Sphere." He growled.

"Yes sir!" His pilots said before quickly leaving.

He sighed and frowned. Something about all of this was bothering him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Once again, his bad habit of dismissing his concerns came up as he began setting up his contingency plans in the event that his pilots should fail…

* * *

Howard sighed in relief as the decoy crew returned inside safely after it was decided that enough time had been spent making it seem believable.

"We should get moving now." Trowa said as they stood on the bridge of the Peacemillion.

The others nodded as Howard alerted the Sweepers at the controls that their plan was now in action.

"I have a feeling they're not going to retreat this time… so we shouldn't either. We need to end this once and for all." Milliardo growled.

"Maganacs, stay back behind the shield the Virgo II's will produce to protect you. Duo, remember to stay hidden with the Maganacs so that you don't accidentally get hit during the battle. Wait until they're caught off balance by the Wing Zero's shot before revealing yourself, but make sure you take at least one of them out when you do." Heero said coldly as he reminded them of their plan.

Duo rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I've got it covered. I'm not going to make the same mistake twice."

Heero smirked but remained silent, causing Duo to frown in annoyance with the unspoken insult.

"Well, well, Heero's in awfully good humour today." Wufei said in surprise.

"At my expense, as usual…" Duo grumbled.

The others couldn't help but chuckle in amusement, knowing they wouldn't have many more chances to be amused once the battle started.

"Come on, we'll need to put a lot of distance between ourselves and the Peacemillion so that they don't see the Wing Zero. If they do, that will blow our entire plan." Rashid said with a concerned frown.

"Just remember not to make the distance too far; the twin buster rifle needs to have some effectiveness… plus we can't risk the blast hitting the colony." Heero reminded them.

The others nodded in agreement and said their goodbyes to those who were forced to remain behind before leaving the bridge, running for the Mobile Suit hangars.

"I just hope Heiran doesn't force his pilots to do something drastic…" Relena said in concern as she leaned on the rail, staring at the visual screen worriedly.

Mariemaia, Howard and Hilde nodded in agreement as their forces came into visual range, speeding towards V08744.

Their combined numbers easily hid the Wing Zero until it masked its signal with the Peacemillion's. The Deathscythe Hell was nowhere to be seen, but those on the bridge knew it was there.

Howard sighed in relief once they were away. "Good luck out there…"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I don't know if anyone actually reads my account description, so I'm just going to post it here as well. I had a bit of a scare with my computer when it malfunctioned yesterday, so I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to post this chapter. Thankfully, as you can see, everything's fine! Huzzah! How will things go for the heroes? You'll have to read and find out!

**Chapter 19 has been uploaded. It was mistakenly forgotten before, so please go back and read it now that it is uploaded. Sorry about that!**


	23. Our Last Stand

Chapter 23: Our Last Stand

Caden cursed as they intercepted Relena's Gundams._"We didn't even get anywhere near the damn Peacemillion!"_ He snarled in frustration.

"_At least we're a safe distance away from the colony. I don't think Mr. Yaturi would appreciate us letting it get damaged. It'd hurt his reputation as much as it'd hurt theirs."_ Andrew replied calmly, even though he was just as angry as Caden. He wanted to end this war too, but it was no longer for the same reasons that Heiran and some of the others had.

Relena's Gundams were using the same strategy they had used in their last encounter: the Heavyarms was keeping them at a distance and separated by shooting its Gatling gun freely at them; the Altron was helping to keep them at a distance by attacking those who managed to get past the Heavyarms' indiscriminate fire.

"_Michael, Steven, Vincent… we'll create a diversion with these three. Get past them and try to break through the Virgo II's defences to wipe out the Maganacs."_ Andrew said as his Gundam managed to get past the Heavyarms and the Altron to attack the Sandrock to prevent it from going after their Gundams.

As Michael, Steven and Vincent made it through their attacks, the Maganacs concentrated their attacks on the three Gundams, forcing them to dodge in order to avoid taking a great deal of damage to their Gundams.

The Virgo II's stood spaced out on either edge and in the middle of the Maganac forces, spreading their shields out like a wall to protect the weaker mobile suits. Despite their best efforts, the Planetary Defensors held, and all that happened was that they left themselves wide open to attacks from those on the other side of the wall.

The Heavyarms and Altron had switched back to their natural tactics, forcing them to alter their plans of attack.

"_Fall back. We need to reassess the situation."_ Caden growled as the Epyon separated itself from the Altron and fell back some distance.

The others quickly joined him as Relena's Gundams did the same.

* * *

"_Are you sure it's wise of us to let them fall back?"_ Trowa asked in concern after Quatre told them to let them fall back.

"_Don't worry. We were expecting this to happen. They'll reassess their battle tactics, fall into a fray with us, and then the Wing Zero will begin charging the twin buster rifle."_

"_Wait a minute, you mean to tell us that we're going to let ourselves come close to being fried just to let the Wing Zero attack them?"_ Duo asked incredulously.

"_That's the plan. They probably have instructions to get out of the way if you do, so it would render my attack useless. You'll pull out at the very last second. Just remember to stick to your part, Duo."_ Heero said coolly.

"_Pulling out at the very last second seems to be turning into a bad habit of yours."_ Sally said wryly as the Maganacs and Virgo II's began setting up their own plan of attack to aid the Gundams better once the Deathscythe Hell was no longer their defence priority.

"_And it's infecting us too. Remember, we're in the line of fire just as much as they are."_ Noin said with a shake of her head.

"_No we're not. We're shifting our location. We'll be putting ourselves between them and escape. The twin buster rifle's attack will narrowly miss us."_ Une said as her Virgo II motioned for the others to begin shifting their line.

Despite the mass-produced suits being slower than the Gundams, Heiran's pilots were too concerned with trying to figure out a better strategy to notice their change in location.

"_What makes you think they'll try to escape?"_ Duo asked in disbelief as he kept the Deathscythe Hell carefully within the Maganac ranks.

"_Well we know they won't, but it will make them think that we think they'll retreat."_ Rashid replied casually.

"_Don't worry, Heero, we've got ourselves positioned so that when they attack us, they'll still be in your line of fire." _Sally assured Heero as the Virgo II's reactivated their Planetary Defensors.

"_Here they come…"_ Quatre said warily as Heiran's Gundams split up and began attacking both groups.

* * *

Michael, Steven and Vincent resumed their attacks on the Planetary Defensors, even though they began to feel that it was a fruitless effort.

Andrew, Yamato and Quinn were keeping the Heavyarms from using its Gatling gun by keeping in close range, forcing it to stick to its army knives.

Kareem and Marco were trying to keep their distance from the Sandrock to avoid its Heat Shotels, but the Sandrock still managed to close the gaps they created and forced them to fight it at close range.

Caden was the only one working alone as the Epyon and the Altron battled fiercely. The Altron countered the Epyon's heat rod with its dragon fangs, the two fangs working together in an attempt to destroy the heat rod that had been forced to wrap itself around one of the fangs.

"_Caden! We've got trouble!"_ Andrew yelled in shock as his Gundam picked up an energy reading beginning to build from the Peacemillion.

"_They wouldn't dare… Not with their people in the way…"_ Caden said in shock, freezing the Epyon long enough for the Altron's dragon fangs to shatter the heat rod.

"_Incoming!"_ Andrew yelled as an energy blast erupted from the Peacemillion.

Relena's Gundams forced Heiran's Gundams to remain in the blast zone until the last minute, severely crippling Quinn and Marco's Gundams and effectively removing them from the battle.

* * *

"_That's two down! Showtime!"_ Duo yelled gleefully as the Deathscythe Hell appeared in front of Michael and Steven's Gundams, swinging its beam scythe sideways, slicing the two Gundams in half at the waist joints. The blade burned through their thrusters, causing them to explode and destroy the Gundams.

"_We're on our way… save us some fun."_ Heero casually commented as the Tallgeese III launched from the Peacemillion and charged with the Wing Zero towards the battlefield.

* * *

Heiran was watching the battle from the colony's camera system and paled as the Deathscythe Hell appeared. "What the hell…? How can he be…?"

As the Wing Zero and the Tallgeese III came into the range of the cameras, the Wing Zero taking Andrew off of Trowa's hands and the Tallgeese III taking the Epyon off of Wufei's hands, he cursed as he realized they were the reason he had always felt wary. The remains of the Gundams had seemed too little for them to have been annihilated, but he hadn't wanted to believe they had survived, so he had ignored his feelings. Now he realized that would prove to be a potential disaster if he didn't try to salvage it now.

"Caden… retreat. We need to re-evaluate the situation. I never expected that they could have survived that attack back at headquarters. They must have headed straight for the atmosphere in order to avoid being discovered in the sweep Luxembourg conducted of the area afterwards." Heiran growled angrily.

"_We would if we could sir, but… they're not letting us get even a little distance from them."_

"Fine… kill as many of them as you can, and make it fast. I don't care how you kill them… just hurry up and do it. We have to salvage something from this disaster."

Caden nodded and vanished from the screen.

Heiran cursed in frustration, but could do nothing and hope they succeeded. He really didn't feel like enacting any of his contingency plans, but if it came down to it… well… he'd have no reservations about going into hiding and licking his wounds from this setback…

* * *

"_Virgo II's, Maganacs, you can withdraw from the battle now. We can handle the remaining Gundams ourselves. Please protect the Peacemillion."_ Quatre said as Relena's Gundams kept constantly switching opponents to keep Heiran's Gundams off balance.

"_Understood… be careful Master Quatre."_ Rashid said grimly as they began to return to the Peacemillion.

"_You too Rashid."_ Quatre replied as the Sandrock managed to sever one of the hands on Yamato's Gundam before trading enemies with the Deathscythe Hell.

* * *

On the bridge of the Peacemillion, Relena, Howard, Hilde and Mariemaia watched as their plan became a deadly success.

When the Maganacs and the Virgo II's began returning to the ship, Hilde turned to leave the bridge.

Relena grabbed her by the arm and frowned at her in concern. "Where are you going?"

"When the others get back, I'm going out to help the Gundams. I have experience piloting a mobile suit, I can help them."

"No, you're not." Relena said sternly as she tightened her grip on the stronger woman, who was trying to pry her arm away.

"They're sending them back for a reason, Hilde. They don't want anyone getting in the way. Besides… you'd only make Duo worry about you. You'd be putting the both of you at risk." Mariemaia said as she watched the battle.

Relena nodded in agreement as Hilde stopped fighting her. "Believe me, Hilde; I want to join you in rushing to their aid badly. I hate sitting on the sidelines while they fight in my name. But…" She shook her head in frustration. "…there's nothing I can do but stay here and stay safe while they put their lives on the line to protect mine. They're out there fighting to keep us safe. We need to believe that they'll be all right… after all, they've proven that they will repeatedly, so we need to be ready to welcome them back when the battle's done."

"Don't worry, it looks like one of the Virgo II's and Rashid are sticking close just in case something goes wrong." Howard said as he noticed their suits had stopped and were watching the battle from a distance that could be considered safe, but still close enough to get back into the fray if something happened.

Hilde sighed in defeat and nodded. "You're right… I guess I just hate being stuck on the sidelines too."

Relena smiled. "Then we can hate being stuck on the sidelines together."

Hilde couldn't help but laugh. "All right, you're on."

Howard and Mariemaia nodded in approval as everyone turned their focus back to the battle.

* * *

Duo cursed in annoyance as he fought Kareem's Gundam, which was able to keep him at a distance with its long ranged weapons. He occasionally eyed the control which would activate the Deathscythe Hell's hidden heat rod, but finally decided against using it. He wasn't used to it and he feared accidentally hitting one of his friends. _"Trowa, take this bastard off my hands will ya? He seems more your type."_

"_All right, Duo. I wasn't having much luck with this one anyways."_ Trowa said coolly as the Heavyarms began firing at Kareem's Gundam, confusing Vincent long enough to allow the Deathscythe Hell to attack him.

Noin sighed as she shook her head. _"We probably don't need to be here Rashid. They seem to have everything under control."_

Rashid frowned. _"I know, but I've always hated leaving them to fight for themselves."_

"_Rashid!"_ Noin yelled as she noticed the severely damaged Gundam of Marco's aiming a cannon that it had hidden on its back at the Gundams.

Rashid cursed as the cannon charged. _"Warn them! I'm going to go stop it!"_

"_Rashid no!"_ Noin yelled as the Maganac leader charged towards Marco's Gundam with its heated tomahawk in hand.

Everyone who had been fighting stopped when their Gundams' systems alerted them to the cannon's energy build up.

"_Rashid, no!"_ Quatre yelled as Relena's Gundams charged in an attempt to cut him off.

Rashid's tomahawk sliced into the cannon, causing it to explode from the forced release of the energy it contained.

The explosion enveloped both suits and caused everyone else to shield their eyes from its intense light… when the light faded, only burned scraps remained of the two suits. Nobody seemed willing to fight anymore as they simply floated without any indication that they were going to fight more.

Quatre stared blankly at the empty space for a few moments before screaming in rage.

The Sandrock turned around and attacked the remainder of Heiran's Gundams. With its Heat Shotels activated, the Sandrock destroyed what remained of Quinn's Gundam and Kareem's Gundam, as well as severely damaging Yamato's Gundam before the Altron's dragon fangs caught its Heat Shotels and shattered them.

"_Duo, Trowa, get him out of here! We'll handle them!"_ Milliardo growled as the Sandrock struggled against the Deathscythe Hell and Heavyarms in an attempt to continue to attack. Suddenly, the Sandrock stopped struggling.

"_Quatre?"_ Duo asked warily.

"_I-I'm… fine…I'm sorry…"_ They heard faintly.

"_I'll take him back to the Peacemillion."_ Noin offered quietly as the Virgo II came and grabbed the Sandrock, leading it away from the battlefield.

Inside of his suit, Quatre had curled up on his seat, clutching his chest as he buried his face in his knees, trembling as grief took a strong hold on him.

* * *

"I think we're done, Caden… it's time to surrender." Andrew said shakily.

The Sandrock had been aiming at his Gundam next when the Altron had stepped in.

"_Forget it. We can still fight them! In fact, now is the perfect time to strike while they're distracted!"_ Caden made good on his words as the Epyon charged forward with its beam sabre aimed at the Wing Zero.

The Wing Zero merely stood with its back to the charging Epyon until it got close, then the secondary beam sabre activated and plunged through the cockpit of the Epyon.

The Epyon exploded as the beam sabre went past the cockpit into its reactor.

Andrew's Gundam threw away its remaining weapons and deactivated, signalling surrender. Since he was now the leader, the surviving suits followed his lead.

The Gundams grabbed the suits and pulled them back towards the Peacemillion where their pilots were locked up and the suits were destroyed by a full blast from the Wing Zero's twin buster rifle.

Relena sighed sadly. They had their victory, but it came at a terrible cost…

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Yes, I actually killed off a semi-important character from the original series. Hate me if you want, but admittedly I felt it had to be done in one of the stories sooner or later. Gundam is just one of those series where nobody of importance dying seems like an insult. This one gave me the perfect opportunity to do so. Who knows? Maybe in the third one I kill off a main character? You'll have to wait and see.


	24. Victory

Chapter 24: Victory

Everyone but Quatre stood on board the bridge of the Peacemillion as the visual screen looked towards V08744. "It's time to go get Heiran before he can get away. He probably already has a contingency plan and we need to stop it from happening." Milliardo growled.

"We'll go." Heero said while receiving nods of agreement from Duo, Trowa and Wufei.

"Bring him out alive. We're still seen as bad guys by a lot of the Earth Sphere who sided with Heiran, especially in the colonies. We'll have a lot of work ahead of us and it wouldn't be a good start to rebuilding our image if he was killed before we could tell the Earth Sphere the truth." Une instructed sternly.

"Don't worry, he'll be alive." Duo said dismissively as they headed for the exit.

They froze as the door opened to reveal a very pale Quatre who was sporting dark circles under his eyes. "Are you guys going after Heiran?" He asked with surprising steadiness.

They nodded cautiously.

"I want to come with you. I'm feeling better… I promise not to do anything rash."

"Are you sure you want to?" Duo asked in concern.

"There's still work to be done. I've had some time to grieve, the rest of it can wait until after we're finished. I don't know how long it will take, but my grief is the least important thing right now. It can wait. Please, let me join you." He pleaded.

Heero silently held his hand out and Quatre chuckled weakly, passing Heero his gun. Once Heero had removed the clip and handed it back to Quatre, the others nodded in agreement and the five men left the bridge.

"How are the other Maganacs holding up?" Sally asked worriedly once the door shut.

"Surprisingly well… he died protecting Quatre, so they regard him as a hero. They'll have a funeral for him when we return to the Earth." Mariemaia answered. She had been the one to give them the news of their leader's death.

Relena nodded sadly as Noin informed the commander in charge of the colony about what was happening.

* * *

"I'm deeply sorry about him having been in our colony, but I feared for the safety of the people who live here if I rejected his request to visit us." The commander explained worriedly as he stared down the Gundam pilots.

"Where is he?" Heero asked icily, ignoring the man's apologies.

"He slipped away during the fight. The colony has been in lockdown since the battle began, so he can't have gotten off of the colony yet. The people are still in evacuation shelters, so the colony is empty, which should make your search easier. Please make it a quick search though; I don't want them to remain in the shelters any longer than they have to."

"We'll see what we can do." Trowa said as the others began leaving the office.

The commander nodded gratefully as they left.

"Who would have thought that a colony devoid of people would look so eerie?" Quatre muttered as he looked around.

"Well? Where should we start?" Duo asked as they stood on the empty streets of the colony in front of the command offices.

"Split up and look everywhere… he can't leave the colony until the lockdown is over." Heero said coldly as he passed out ear pieces to them. "Keep in contact. If any one of us finds him, let the others know. I doubt he'll be easy to take down. Desperate men never are."

Duo grumbled about the size of the colony making it next to impossible to find one man.

Heero glared icily at him. "He shouldn't be too far from here, considering he probably fled once the battle turned against his favour. So stop grumbling and start looking."

Duo shot him an annoyed look but it was ignored by Heero.

"I'll stay with Quatre." Trowa ignored the insulted look his friend was giving him as the others nodded in understanding.

"All right, let's go…"

The others nodded and split up, watching the streets warily for any sign of Heiran.

Duo scanned the street he chose carefully, keeping his gun handy just in case Heiran decided to attack in order to avoid being captured. Something glinted in the artificial sunlight, attracting his curiosity. Warily looking around to make sure it wasn't a trap, Duo picked it up and grinned in satisfaction.

"Hey guys, meet me on Augustus Avenue. I've found something that we can use to our advantage…" He grin slipped as he realized what street he was on, but it returned when Wufei came running into sight.

* * *

Heiran was mentally berating himself for losing the access card. It was the only thing that could override the colony's lockdown and allow him to leave before those hounds of Relena could begin hunting him.

He wondered when it was he must have lost it, but the only time that could come to mind was when he pulled out his wallet to look for a few business cards of friends who could hide him until the storm had blown over. He had to give Marco some credit: the death of that one Maganac would have stalled them as they grieved for him.

He sighed in relief as he found the card lying on the street.

Although the street looked deserted, he made sure to look around carefully before bending over to pick up the card… only to freeze in mid-motion as the barely audible click of a safety being removed caught his attention.

"Jeeze… who would have thought he'd be dumb enough to walk right into the trap?" Heiran ground his teeth at Duo's incredulous tone.

"Humph. The more confident they are… the blinder they are." Wufei said contemptuously.

Before anyone could react, Heiran pulled a gun out of his jacket and fired at the contemptuous pilot before the gun was ripped from his hands by Duo.

"You all right Wufei?" Duo asked as Heiran was grabbed roughly by the arms, which were quickly bound by Trowa before the man could give them any more trouble.

Wufei held his shoulder and glared dangerously at Heiran as blood trickled between his fingers. "I'm fine, it went right through." He growled through gritted teeth.

"All right then, let's get out of here before they release the angry mobs." Duo said as he and Trowa began dragging Heiran between them.

"I'm surprised to see you here, Mr. Winner… I figured you would be too caught up in your grief over that Maganac that foolishly got himself killed." Heiran sneered as he caught sight of Quatre, who was trying to keep his distance from Heiran.

Before Quatre could respond, Heero moved quickly and punched Heiran hard, rendering him unconscious.

"Thanks Heero…" Quatre said gratefully as he glared at Heiran.

Heero remained silent as they made their way through the streets.

"Put him in my Gundam." Wufei said icily as they arrived at the hangar.

"Anyone have any objections?" Trowa asked casually.

Despite having good reason to do serious harm to the man, none of the pilots seemed to have any objections to Wufei being the one to escort Heiran.

Once they reached the Gundams, Wufei climbed carefully into the Altron and let Trowa and Duo hand the disgraced businessman over to him.

* * *

"_All right, let's head back to the Peacemillion. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."_ Heero said calmly as they took off from the hangar.

Only a few moments into the flight, the Altron suddenly rolled.

"_What's wrong, Wufei?"_ Trowa asked in concern.

"_Don't worry about it; it's just a little bit of control trouble."_ Wufei said, too lightly to be the truth as the Altron rolled in the opposite direction.

The others broke out in amused laughter.

"_Normally I would be appalled and would tell you to stop… but admittedly, I just can't be bothered to care."_ Quatre said with a cold smirk on his face.

The others knew they should be concerned by Quatre's attitude, but since he'd been put through so much hell by the man, they knew it was better to leave him alone. Considering how much hell Heiran had put them all through, some of them secretly wished the Altron's 'control problems' would worsen.

* * *

Relena scowled as a battered, but conscious, Heiran was brought aboard the Peacemillion. "What did you guys do to him?" She asked in annoyance as Sweepers took Heiran away.

The innocent looks they gave her made her want to scream in frustration with them, but she was also grateful that they hadn't done anything worse than what appeared to have been done to him.

"The Altron had some minor control difficulties. Heiran wasn't strapped in, so he went for a bit of a tumble." Wufei said with a dismissive shrug as one of Quatre's sisters checked over his shoulder.

Milliardo and the others could only shake their heads at his explanation.

Quatre suddenly pulled out his phone with a calculating expression on his face.

"What's up, Quatre?" Duo asked in curiosity.

"I have some calls I have to make. With Heiran going to jail for the rest of his life, his company and its contracts will be free game. As head of the Winner Corporation, I intend to capitalize on that."

Duo flinched at Quatre's icy tone. "Yikes… Quatre's dark side comes out again. Remind me never to mess with you."

Quatre shot him a grateful smile before walking away.

"Now it's time to start the clean up…" Une said with a shake of her head.

Relena nodded reluctantly as the Peacemillion began moving towards the L1 cluster.

"What are we going to do with the prisoners in the mean time?" Hilde asked in concern.

"We'll keep them aboard the Peacemillion until we return to Earth. We won't have a headquarters for a while, so I can travel across the world to deal with the problems he's caused us."

"If you're willing, Quatre and I will start working on a new headquarters as soon as possible." Howard volunteered as he walked up to them with Quatre at his side.

Relena nodded appreciatively. "Thank you both. I just hope the Earth Sphere can recover from this… I fear that it'll take much longer this time than it did after the Eve Wars."

"Don't worry. You have us to help you."

Relena stared at Heero in surprise, not sure if she had heard what he said correctly, but since the others were staring at him in a similar manner… She smiled when they finally recovered enough to nod in agreement.

"I have a feeling I'm going to be indebted to a lot of people for a long time to come, aren't I?"

"I wouldn't doubt it." Milliardo said casually as they headed for the bridge, discussing their plans to recover the severely damaged image of the ESUN and hoped that nothing like this would happen again…

* * *

**Author's Notes**: Sorry about last week. As I said on my profile, my dad went in for surgery. So that took top priority, sorry. This is the second-last chapter! Whoo!


	25. Back to Normal

Chapter 25: Back to Normal

A little over three months had passed since Heiran was captured and spring was once again in full swing in the Sanc Kingdom.

The three months saw many positive things happen for Relena and the survivors of the ESUN, once it was re-established with new members to replace those mercilessly killed by Heiran. Shortly after their return to the Earth, Heiran Yaturi was charged with what turned out to be a record number of charges, many of which that couldn't be defeated no matter how hard his team of lawyers tried, which resulted in him being sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail, and then some.

The three rookies who had survived had reached an agreement to testify against Heiran and were allowed to avoid jail time for their parts in his schemes. They went back to their respective countries and slipped back into normal society without any trouble.

Any rebellions or attempts to free Heiran were quickly squashed by the overwhelming majority who had come to see Heiran for what he really was: a terrorist who threatened the peace the ESUN had managed to maintain since the Eve Wars ended. However, only a month and a half into his sentence, Heiran turned up dead. Only a small effort was put forth by the prison staff to find out what had happened, and it was determined that his death would remain unsolved due to the lack of evidence and an ambiguous cause of death. Those who knew them suspected it was one of the Gundam pilots, but all of them had conveniently solid alibis that prevented them from being implicated.

Work on the new ESUN headquarters was going smoothly as the Sweepers and the workers employed by the Winner Corporation worked hard on making sure everything was sound.

The remains of Rashid's mobile suit had been recovered and buried in the Maganacs' homeland for his funeral, which everyone attended even if they should have been too busy to otherwise.

The Winner Corporation was successful in its bid to take over Heiran's company and it quickly went to work on destroying projects that were currently underway by the company due to supposedly shoddy workmanship and rebuilding them from the ground up.

The Peacemillion was left in the care of the Sweepers for a mobile base, which they used frequently due to all of the rebuilding projects they were supplying materials for.

The NJD cancellers on the Maganac suits and the Virgo II's were removed and destroyed, as were the Virgo II's. The Maganacs were allowed to keep their suits just in case, but they were to remain inactive unless requested by the ESUN.

Things were finally getting back to normal, even though the pilots had not been able to return to their homes until things had settled down.

* * *

Noin frowned at Relena in concern as the younger woman walked out of one meeting and was already preparing to go into her next one. "You should take a break. This isn't healthy."

Relena shook her head. "There are too many things that need to be taken care of, even if things have begun to settle down. I've done stints like this before, I'll be fine."

"What about Mariemaia? She can help you." Noin asked in concern, knowing that those stints she mentioned always left her in a bad way.

"I sent her back to her studies. She needs to catch up on what she missed since we went into hiding."

"Stubborn woman." Noin growled as she folded her arms and glared at the younger woman.

Relena smiled as she put a free hand on the Colonel's arm. "Don't worry, Noin, I'll take a break as soon as construction on headquarters is finished."

Noin rolled her eyes in disbelief: Relena had said that before when they were finding her a place to live until a new home could be built, but found excuses not to. "All right, you're getting off lucky this time because I've got some things to attend to myself, so I'll be back when you get out of this next meeting."

Relena nodded as she entered another office.

* * *

Noin sighed as she walked down the hallways, entering a part of the headquarters that was only partially completed. She slipped silently into a conference room that joined with another one and peeked through the sliding doors to see what was happening in the next room. She stifled a giggle at what she saw.

Heero was holding a cake above his head, trying to keep it out of Duo's reach.

"Hey c'mon, man! Can't I have just a little taste?" Duo pleaded.

"Come on Duo! Would you please stop it before Heero kills you with the thing?" Quatre asked as he tried half-heartedly to stop Duo.

"Hm. They did a really good job with it this time." Trowa said with an impressed tone as he finished licking his finger. Being taller than the others, he had an easy reach to taste the cake despite Heero's efforts.

"Trowa!" Heero and Duo yelled in annoyance as Trowa chuckled before setting down the plates he was carrying.

Wufei was idly eyeing the cake and fiddling with his knife.

"Not you too, Wufei!" Heero growled as he noticed.

Wufei shrugged and put the knife back in his pocket. "I was just considering whether to shut Duo up or not."

"Hey!"

Everyone fell silent and stared at the doorway as they heard Noin laughing hard.

Trowa and Wufei pulled open the doors as Heero set the cake on the table and grabbed Duo's hand as it went for the cake.

A yelp of pain from Duo made it clear that Heero was ensuring that Duo wouldn't try to slip out of his grip.

"So? What's happening?" Quatre asked once Noin stopped laughing.

She wiped tears away as she got herself under control. "Relena's being stubborn, as always. I'm going to have to cancel all of her appointments and bring her down here bodily."

The pilots shook their heads.

"Get her down here even if you have to handcuff her." Duo said in annoyance.

Noin smiled. "Don't worry, I've got a plan. You just keep them out of the cake, Heero."

Heero nodded and shot a deadly glare at Duo, who slipped behind Quatre as though believing that his fellow pilot would protect him once he was freed from Heero's grip.

Quatre merely shook his head in disbelief with Duo's behaviour.

Noin stuffed a hand in her mouth to stop herself from breaking out in laughter again. "I'd better get going. The meeting she's in won't be that long, and I have to cancel all of her appointments before she gets out."

The pilots nodded in understanding as she left.

* * *

Relena was the last person to leave the meeting, sighing in exhaustion as she secretly considered taking a break.

As she walked into her new office to exchange the folders from these past meetings for new ones for the upcoming meetings, the world went dark as somebody blindfolded her. Before she could get a scream of help out, a strip of cloth went into her mouth to silence her. She tried struggling against whoever it was, but the person was much stronger than her.

She felt herself being lead somewhere, but since the headquarters were still so new, she couldn't tell where she was going or even if anyone was around to help her, especially since most of the new staff that had been hired wouldn't be necessary until the construction was completed, leaving the new headquarters feeling practically empty.

Finally, she felt herself stop and heard a door open.

"Did you have to go that far?" A familiar voice asked in disbelief.

"I doubt she'd come any other way." Her captor said apologetically as the gag was removed.

"Noin? What is the meaning of this?" She asked in annoyance. "I don't have time for whatever…" She trailed off as Noin removed the blindfold and her eyes adjusted to reveal the five pilots standing around a table that was set up with food and the cake.

A small pile of presents sat in the corner of the room. "You were so busy we were afraid that you'd forget your own birthday. So the guys decided to take matters into their own hands." Noin explained as she rested her hands on Relena's shoulders. "By the way, I cancelled all of your appointments for the rest of the day, so please enjoy yourself." She said quickly as she patted the younger woman's shoulders.

Relena turned to yell at Noin for going behind her back, but Noin was already leaving, shutting the door in Relena's face.

"Judging by your reaction, you did forget today was your birthday." Trowa said in amusement.

Relena blushed as she turned to face the pilots.

Quatre shook his head as he herded her towards the head of the table.

"Why did you guys do this?" She asked uncertainly.

"Why not? We just recovered from a horrendous situation, so we had to do something to celebrate." Wufei said as he passed her the knife he had been toying with earlier.

"Jeeze… doesn't this ring of déjà vu?" Duo asked as she sat in embarrassment.

She couldn't help but smile and nod in agreement as she took the knife from Wufei. "You guys are always there for me in the aftermath of a bad situation… I must admit I feel a bit spoiled." She said with a hint of shame as the others began to sit.

"You're a fool." Heero snapped coldly as he sat on her left-hand side.

"Hey, that was a bit harsh." Duo said defensively as he sat on her right-hand side.

Heero rolled his eyes in annoyance with Duo. "It's the truth. She seems to keep forgetting what friends do for each other. Sometimes a reminder is needed."

Before Duo could speak, Relena burst out laughing, causing them to look at her in surprise. "I'm sorry… it's just… hearing that from Heero…" She shook her head as she tried to get herself under control.

Heero closed his eyes in annoyance as she finally stopped laughing.

"Thank you… all of you… I don't think I realized how much I needed this until now."

Quatre shook his head. "Maybe we should have Noin kidnap you more often."

Relena shot an indignant look at Quatre before Duo sighed as he stared longingly at the cake.

"Can you hurry up and cut it? I've been starving myself all day for this damn thing!"

Heero and Wufei were the only ones not laughing at Duo; even Duo rolled his eyes and joined in the laughter.

Finally, they settled down to enjoy Relena's birthday together, despite the occasional bickering between the pilots as they commented on something one of the others did.

* * *

The next day, Duo sighed as his watched turned over to 9 o'clock while they walked down one of the partially completed hallways, heading for a side exit in order to avoid being stopped by employees, most of whom were constantly thanking them for protecting Relena during Heiran's terrorizations.

"So we're leaving on the 10 o'clock shuttle, eh?" He asked the others, who nodded in confirmation. "Damn. We have such a good day yesterday and now we have to leave so suddenly…" He muttered sadly.

"…Without even saying goodbye to Relena." Quatre said as he shook his head.

"She's busy setting up the new arrangements for how the ESUN will be run." Heero said with a shrug.

"She's always busy whenever we leave. It's becoming quite a routine thing." Trowa admitted casually.

Wufei kept his silence as they continued towards the exit.

"Wait, please!" The pleading voice caused them to stop in surprise and turn around as Relena ran up to them, stopping just short of running into Heero. "Were you guys going to leave without saying good-bye?" She asked in irritation once she caught her breath.

"You were busy." Duo shrugged apologetically.

"You did the same thing to me after you had returned from that other universe. I had told you guys that I'm never too busy to see you off." She said sternly.

"Speaking of which… Somebody still owes me a meal."

Duo cringed at Heero's tone. "Sure, now you decide to capitalize on it… when I'm flat broke." He grumbled.

"I'm not… I'm just reminding you that you still owe me one."

Duo rolled his eyes in annoyance, but kept his silence.

The others couldn't help but laugh for a few moments.

"Well… I guess we'll see you the next time you need to come into space." Quatre said regretfully.

Relena shook her head. "I order none of you to be strangers. You will come and visit me whenever you have some free time, and I promise I will drop everything to see you."

"Are you sure you want to make such a promise?" Wufei asked wryly, causing her to blush in embarrassment.

"Well… I'll try to drop everything…" She mumbled as she looked down at the floor.

"Don't worry about it. Do what you can." Trowa said reassuringly.

Relena stood shifting nervously for a few moments before finally nodding at something she must have been arguing with herself about. "Oh… forget what they may think about it!" She snapped before hugging Wufei, catching all of them by surprise.

Wufei quickly returned her hug before pushing her away warily. She promptly moved on to hug the others, all of whom happily returned her hugs, except Heero who pushed her away just as quickly as Wufei had. Though completely different from the last time they had said goodbye, the other pilots knew that Heero was keeping things strained in order to avoid a repeat of what had happened earlier in the year.

"C'mon guys, we'll miss our shuttle." Quatre said worriedly as he checked his watch.

"Take care of yourselves. I swear I will drop my principles and kill you myself if I hear that anything bad has happened to you." Relena said sternly.

"Don't worry; I think it's safe to say that there won't be any trouble for a while." Duo said before throwing up his hands at the warning glare she gave him. "Fine, fine! We promise to take care of ourselves, right?"

The others nodded in agreement before turning to resume walking down the hallway.

"Oh! Wait!" Relena said suddenly.

Just as they glanced back to see what she wanted, a blinding flash greeted them.

She smirked at them as she waved a camera tauntingly at them. "There haven't been any pictures of you five together in all of the time that I've known you, so I decided to take one. I knew you wouldn't agree to one willingly so…"

Heero began towards her to take away the camera, but she simply smiled knowingly and ran down another hallway. Heero stopped and glared down the hallway she had run down before shaking his head and returning to the others.

"Jeeze, who would have thought she'd be capable of having such a dirty trick up her sleeves?" Duo asked incredulously.

"It doesn't matter; she'll probably keep the photo for herself anyways." Trowa said as he shook his head.

"Heero, the next time you visit, steal the camera and the photo and any backup copies she may have and destroy them." Wufei growled.

"Why?" Quatre asked curiously.

"The five of us in a picture together? People may accidentally think I'm friends with you four psychos."

The others rolled their eyes at Wufei as they caught sight of the time and ran from the building, not wanting to miss the shuttle that would take them back to their normal lives. For what they hoped would be for good this time…

Gundam Wing

"No Escape from War"

The End

Part 2 of 3

* * *

**Author's Notes:** It's done! I'll be taking a break before releasing the final part of the Gundam Trilogy. I'll start releasing on October 31st. Sorry about this guys!

The birthday scene was inspired by one image that can be found typically when you're searching for Gundam Wing images. And yes, I've worked that into the story too, if you couldn't guess from the dialogue. It probably happened in AC 197 after the Eve Wars.

Relena's comment about forgetting what the others would think is a callback to an earlier chapter when Heiran said that the older members of the ESUN's high ranking staff were looking at her relationship with the Gundam pilots as being more than simply "friends". Yes, despite the way she acted back then (fueled by rage and indignation), those words had been bothering her this entire time. Heiran was that kind of man. He could say something that would rile you up instantly, then slowly eat away at you once he's gone.

Yes, there are quite a few more callbacks from the previous story than there was in the rest of the story in this chapter. That was simply an accident in the writing process. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this final chapter!

To read the third and final part of the series, go here:  
fanfiction . net /s/7510993/1/Free_Us_From_War


End file.
